The rise of Personal Delivery Devices: Will a robot deliver my items?

By Aditya Abeysinghe

Ever since 1920s, drones have gained popularity for their lightweight, remote controllable freight delivery nature. They have been used for military activities, logistics, agriculture and for recreational activities too. Drones are aerial, terrestrial or aquatic in nature, although, aerial and terrestrial drones are mostly used today. Aerial drones are used mostly for lightweight, fast transport and terrestrial drones are used mostly for heavyweight transport. Of these two types, a new class of drones have emerged in the past few years for transport of goods or rather packages, between sellers and clients requesting items from them. They are collectively called Personal Delivery Devices (PDD) s and are classified in metropolitan areas as a class of pedestrians. Companies such as Google and Amazon have developed aerial drones for package delivery and high priority supply delivery. Hence, these devices have completely revolutionized logistics of many tech and marketing companies and they are the new trend for fast, cost efficient and innovative delivery of supplies.

What backs PDDs?

So, why is the hype? One of the key drivers behind the adoption is the ability of drones to deliver goods in less time compared to conventional deliveries. Take for example, a Pizza deliver guy. The rider may face delays due to traffic congestions, traffic lights etc. However, if an aerial drone is used such as what Amazon Prime Air* used to deliver packages these delays could be lowered and the deliveries could be made precisely at the expected delivery time. Aerial drones could be also used for time-critical deliveries such as those for patients.

Another advantage of PDDs over conventional deliveries is that they are cheaper to operate, maintain and store. Taking the same example of the Pizza guy, a higher cost is required to pay the guy, to service the vehicle, for fuel, for lease and for insurance. Compare that to a PDD where you need to pay only for the operator, legal fees and maintenance fees which are far less than the manual delivery method. Coupled with efficient tracking methods and less wastage on each delivery, use of PDDs outweighs the current delivery methods used by many sellers. 

PDDs are also greener compared to current delivery methods. They are electrically powered, have zero carbon emissions and require less energy demands than driver operated vehicles. PDDs also have less wastage on their parts and can be easily reused, if necessary with small repairs.

Barriers towards operation

One of the main barriers towards the operation of PDDs is the lack of infrastructure in most urban areas. PDDs need frequent charging stations due to their lightweight power capacity. This means that they could operate only within limited ranges from the sellers and their use as delivery vehicles is limited. 

Though many driverless or near autonomous vehicles have been tested successfully, there have been instances where these vehicles have caused fatalities to pedestrians, though this cannot be directly related to PDDs due to their slow moving nature compared to driverless cars. However, PDDs use the same radar and sensor technologies for most of its autonomous capabilities as those used in autonomous cars and other road-driven vehicles. Therefore, the reliability of walking with PDDs in sidewalks has been long questioned. 

Privacy concerns are another area that has been debated on the use of PDDs. This is the case where aerial drones pose privacy risks, especially in urban residential areas. PDDs can capture significant personal data as they use a variety of instruments for operations, including those for vision, sensing and signals. Also, when PDDs get stuck in sidewalks and roads, they could pose significant safety concerns for pedestrians and vehicles. 

Legal frameworks in many countries also have minimal support for use of PDDs in urban areas. For example, aerial drones are currently operable in the U.S. only at the line-of-the-sight of the operator and terrestrial drones have zero law enforcements, due to their recent introduction to the consumer market. Therefore, many companies are reluctant to develop releases given the tight regulations and due to the payload limits in some areas. Sellers also have a lopsided view about their use with consumers due to the novel nature, less freight that PDDs can carry and the reluctance to face legal risks.

• Amazon Prime – Amazon Prime Air is a drone delivery service operated by Amazon to deliver packages up to five pounds
• Dominos – A U.S. based multinational Pizza restaurant chain
• LIDAR – Light Detection and Ranging is a technology used to detect distance to an object 
• Nuro – A autonomous vehicle manufacturer based in California, U.S. that produces PDDs
• Refraction–A robotic manufacturer based in Michigan, U.S. 

Image Courtesy: post-gazette.com, austintexas.gov