Field-Driven Lessons Learned for Delivery Robots Logistics Operation in Urban Environment

Abstract

Abstract In the city centre of Trikala, Greece, a real-life logistics service was operated with a fleet of 5 droids on a public route in the urban pedestrian area in the context of the SHOW project (GA No 875530). It took place from December 2022 to the end of February 2023. The droids are small automated vehicles missioned to carry out indoor and outdoor logistic services in pedestrian-centric environments. The logistics service that operated in Trikala was of two types: (a) a multi-stop parcel delivery service from the depot to the shops and (b) a parcel collection service from the shops to the depot. The current manuscript describes the solutions implemented and the challenges faced by the droids while performing last-mile deliveries. The manuscript concludes with suggestions from experience for new implementations of logistics services operated by automated vehicles. These include the advice to not underestimate the difficulty of integrating radically new vehicles into existing logistics services; the importance of having the trust and support of the population and the need for data network stability.