It wasn’t so long ago that the idea of biped or quadruped robots delivering pizzas seemed like a real possibility. Such speculation was fuelled by Google’s acquisition of Boston Dynamics—a company more associated with potential military applications, which earned notoriety for its scarily nimble Big Dog robots.
Google, and then its parent company Alphabet, had to work out how to bring this technology to civvy street—a problem that certainly gnawed at the development team. The vision was perhaps too grandiose even for Alphabet and, earlier this year, it was reported that Boston Dynamics had been off the leash so it could sniff around for potential buyers.
One of the early Boston Dynamics videos that got everyone rather excited.
With that short-lived episode over, the roadmap for robotic deliveries is now back under debate, at least if you were expecting arms and legs. But how about an autonomous delivery box on wheels or an airborne drone instead? These are all at the prototype stage but they’re definitely coming; in fact, there’s a wide range of innovative technology under investigation by retailers to achieve a competitive edge, from drones to chatbots to redesigned Mars rovers and slasher robots.
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Source: Ars Technica – Pizza, the unsung agent of the robot revolution