Source: Adapted from Touami, S. (2020). Les robots de livraison en ville, une solution à venir ? Université Gustave Eiffel, chaire Logistics City.
Zipline uses drones to transport medication and blood in Ghana, Rwanda, and Tanzania, while the Swiss Post delivers laboratory samples by drone to hospitals in Zurich, Bern, and Lugano. Drones gain traction for consumer goods as well. Ford Europe introduced the “Autolivery” concept that makes use of drones for the collection and delivery of parcels to consumers in urban areas.
Road robots such as Nuro and Neolix share the infrastructure with other passenger and freight vehicles.
Low-speed road robots such as Nuro travel up to forty kilometers per hour, while high-speed road robots such as Udelv and Gatik have a maximum speed of eighty kilometers per hour.
Sidewalk robots Starship and Kiwibot operate in the United States but are controlled from Colombia. In the same category, follower sidewalk robots such as TwinswHeel’s TH05 support delivery workers.