One of the changes that has occurred during the pandemic is that we now have a much stronger connection with the couriers and shipping services for our packages. Things we don't need right away and same-day deliveries, everything adds up. Even before the pandemic there was this trend, but there is no doubt that the years 2020 and 2021 have greatly accelerated this transition.
A transition that has produced an earthquake for the players in the sector and several innovations in the field of logistics: in the medium term, however, it could bring us more and more robots that do the delivery work in the so-called "last mile". This is precisely what the concept this article talks about: a delivery system based on "cooperative" robots and created by the Korean designer Minwook Jang. It is called Co-Op.
What is Co-Op?
Co-Op is an acronym that stands for Cooperation Delivery Robot. Jang's vision is simple: in a future society, robots (and not humans) will work together to deliver our packages, and this is just such a system. Delivery robots are designed to be cooperative, to be able to work as a team depending on the size, number or weight of the goods to be delivered in a given area.
Forget the well-loaded van that goes all around the city: in the Co-Op concept only the cars you need are used. If there are few deliveries in a small area, the "trunk" of just one of the modular robots you see in these images will be enough. If the items are larger or more numerous, the cooperative robots will be ready to “stack” or carry a large object in two (for example packages containing a wardrobe to be assembled) just as two couriers would carry an object on their shoulders voluminous.
Once the delivery is complete, all employed robots return to the “local” hub to recharge and be reassigned.
A look at cooperative robots
As you can see, these robots have a design that makes them look friendly, with a camera sensor and a light on the front for night driving. They look a bit like those information robots that you sometimes see around electronics fairs. They also feature an emergency stop button on the back, in case users need to stop the robot manually.
I doubt these robots can work well on a busy street with cars, trucks, and other vehicles. They might work best on low-traffic roads, but for now, automated vehicles aren't an important part of many cities yet. Overall this is a good concept, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like these cooperative robots in a few years.
We'll see.
