Can you imagine a future where robots serve us food and bring us our shoes? What if a robot could return your library books or walk the dog? The future is near!
Road robots are being used at colleges and in cities from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, California to deliver small food orders and packages. Right now, many restaurants are only open for carry-out or delivery and these robots are coming to the rescue!
To help provide more contact-free deliveries, many companies have started building their own delivery robots. Most delivery robots only travel about 10 mph. That’s slower than your bicycle! They use computer coding, cameras, and sensors to safely cross streets and climb over sidewalks to reach your door.
Companies are trying to improve the way they make deliveries to small towns and neighborhoods outside of big cities. They’re hoping that robots can help delivery drivers to be more efficient. One idea being tested is to use robots on the delivery truck to help the driver make more deliveries. When the truck stops in a neighborhood, the driver would send the robots out to deliver the packages. This could help delivery truck drivers finish their routes faster and maintain safe social distance.
Companies hope that robot delivery will continue to grow in the future. So, hang in there, soon you might be able to send a bot to return a library book or maybe even walk the dog!
What Do You Think? How would you improve the design of delivery robots?
Reading Response Click on this link to respond to your reading. Print out the response page or upload it to your classroom site.
Photo Credit: (t)Deeper Look Photography/Shutterstock, (b)Besjunior/Shutterstock
