to cut down street traffic congestion,
create efficient delivery of an order,
and cut down on exhaust emissions.
“We see a huge potential for robotic
delivery systems in the future, and by
combining our vans and the robots,
we call it the mothership concept,”
says Volker Mornhinweg, Head of
Mercedes-Benz Vans. The small
robotic vehicles can carry up to 40
pounds and complete deliveries within
a three mile radius. They move at
pedestrian speeds and can maneuver
around obstacles and people.
Navigation is via GPS and multiple
cameras are used to map the vehicle’s
intended path. The packages are
securely locked within the cargo bay
and can only be opened by the
intended recipient.
Starship Technologies has also
partnered with Switzerland’s postal
service, Swiss Post to test the delivery
robots in three locations across the
country including the capital, Bern.
They want to see how effective the
robots can be at carrying goods over
the last mile of the delivery route.
Combining Truck
Delivery Drones
After studying Amazon and
Starship’s plans of increasing drone
range with the use of vans or buses
and the CyPhy Works experiment, I
think it makes a lot of sense to use
the same technology with AED drone
shipments. Of course, on-time delivery
of standard packages and pizzas is
important, but not nearly as critical as
sending a life-saving AED to a remote
location. As I’ve stated before, today’s
drones have a critical endurance
limitation due to battery capacity. If
you increase the battery’s capacity,
the weight is increased and the
carrying capacity of the drone is
reduced proportionally. So, absolutely,
one of the answers to this dilemma is
to shorten the drone’s travel distance
by having another vehicle carry the
drone to a point as close to the final
destination as possible.
Let’s suppose that the 911
emergency network has matured to
the point that many local police and
government vehicles have an
ambulance drone in the trunk. The
drone is safely tucked in a plastic case
with a cable running from the car’s 12
volt system to a charger built into the
case to keep the drone’s and AED’s
batteries fully charged. All of the local
system’s and fire department vehicles
are continually tracked via GPS and
locations are updated on an area map
in a central computer.
When an emergency call comes
into 911 or the app’s control center,
the central computer decides which
vehicle is closest to the site of the
emergency and informs an operator to
call the vehicle’s driver. The driver then
stops at a clear location, removes the
drone from the enclosure, and allows
it to take off and go to the site of the
emergency — whether that be an
inaccessible area or just a rural or
urban home or work site.
I am envisioning a larger drone
that might carry a small oxygen bottle
or a chemical oxygen generator and
mask in addition to the AED, as well
as a few wound care supplies such as
bandages, splints, and topical
antiseptics (maybe even an EpiPen as
seen in Figure 11; an epinephrine
injection device is typically carried by
those who have severe allergies for
life-critical allergic reactions).
Is this just a dream of the future
or could it be implemented with
today’s technology? It is possible, and
one of you could be the force behind
the implementation process.
A Useful Assistant
for Humans
Notice that I used the word useful
in the title above. As I have
mentioned many times over the years,
well-meaning designers have tried to
develop a robotic caregiver that would
be the all-in-one device to care for
seniors and hospitalized persons.
When benevolent thoughts of
developing a caregiver robot arise,
people first think of help for disabled
or hospitalized people and not for
seniors living on their own.
However, when a prospective
designer begins to analyze the needs
that all disabled persons may require,
they quickly realize that no single
design can meet the unique needs of
all disabled persons. On the other
hand, a quick analysis will show that
most seniors have all their functional
physical capabilities, it’s just that these
functions do not work as well as they
once did. This very large group of
people needs physical assistance in
daily living.
With the best intentions in mind,
the best robot product results so far
have been a passive robot that can
perform two-way communications
with a doctor or other persons, and
deliver needed food, and medical
supplies and/or medicine. The RP-Vita
telepresence robot from iRobot and
In Touch Health shown in Figure 12 is
a great example of a robot that has
proven its usefulness as a nurse or
doctor’s assistant in hospital
environments.
Hospitals are very busy work
environments where any reliable
Figure 12. Telepresence robot from In Touch
Health and iRobot gives doctors access to
remote patients.
64 SERVO 12.2016
Figure 11. An EpiPen is definitely small enough
to ride on a drone to a person in need.