Ford has announced it is partnering with walking robots maker Agility Robotics for its fleet of self-driving delivery vans.
The automaker is announcing today that its fleet of autonomous delivery vans will carry more than just packages: Riding along with the boxes in the back there will be a two-legged robot.
Autonomous vehicles might someday be able to navigate bustling city streets to deliver groceries, pizzas and other packages without a human behind the wheel. But that doesn’t solve what Ford Motor CTO Ken Washington describes as the last 50-foot problem.
The United States’ second largest carmaker has been moving steadily on the development of full-service autonomous driving vans which it could potentially license out to companies ranging from Domino’s Pizza to Lyft or Target.
Digit, Agility Robotics’ humanoid unveiled earlier this year, is designed to move in a more dynamic fashion than regular robots do, and it’s able to walk over uneven terrain, climb stairs, and carry 20-kilogram packages.
Ford says in a post on Medium that Digit will bring boxes from the curb all the way to your doorstep, covering those last few meters that self-driving cars are unable to. The company plans to launch a self-driving vehicle service in 2021.
Video credit: Ford and Agility Robotics
Ford and startup Agility Robotics are partnering in a research project that will test how two-legged robots and self-driving vehicles can work together to solve that curb-to-door problem.
Digit is capable of lifting packages that weigh up to 40 pounds, can walk up and down stairs and through uneven terrain, while maintaining its balance after being bumped, Ford said.
Digit performs flawlessly in the video, although it wasn’t operating fully autonomously. It was being teleoperated at a high level via commands like “walk to this location,” “climb the stairs,” and “put down the box.” We’re told that Digit didn’t fall over even once during filming, but certainly a bigger challenge for the robot will be to perform this well across the wide variety of homes that it may eventually have to handle, with obstacles like inclined surfaces, different types of stairs, overgrown yards, gates, and wayward pets and/or children.
Having a vehicle serve as a base station provides a variety of advantages for Digit. For example, Digit can get away with a much smaller battery than most large humanoids, because it only really needs to operate for a few minutes at a time before returning to the vehicle to recharge as it drives to the next delivery stop. And while Digit carries several stereo cameras and a lidar, it will have help from its companion robovan to do much of the mapping and path planning required to carry out a delivery. That’s an advantage, Ford says, because its autonomous vehicles are equipped with much more powerful sensors and computers than Digit could carry alone.
Digit will ride in the back of Ford’s self-driving delivery vans, unfolding itself at every stop to make a delivery. The robot will rely on the vehicle to recharge its battery as well as for sensing, computing, and connectivity resources.
Image credit: Ford and Agility Robotics
This solves what Agility CEO Damion Shelton describes as a “classic robotics problem,” of helping the robot know where it is when it wakes up from its sleep state.
“If you know you’re riding around in the vehicle with a clear view of your entire surroundings, it’s a lot easier to get up and move around,” Shelton explained. “That’s really how we’re viewing the primary purpose of this beta exchange; to help the robot be aware of its surroundings, so that you don’t go through this sort of boot up process where the robot gets out of the car and is confused for the first 30 seconds it’s turned on.”
All of this research and experimentation is part of Ford’s eventual goal to launch a commercial robotaxi service. And that last 50 feet will be one of the critical hurdles it will need to overcome if it hopes to make self-driving vehicles a profitable enterprise. To prepare, the automaker is pursuing two parallels tracks — testing and honing how an AV business might operate, while separately developing autonomous vehicle technology through its subsidiary, Argo AI.
Argo AI, the Pittsburgh-based company into which Ford invested $1 billion in 2017, is developing the virtual driver system and high-definition maps designed for Ford’s self-driving vehicles. Meanwhile, Ford is testing its go-to-market strategy through pilot programs with local businesses, as well as large corporate partners like Walmart, Domino’s and Postmates.
But with spiraling development costs for autonomous cars in recent years, the company and other carmakers have sought alliances and outside investors.
Ford has been in talks with Germany’s Volkswagen AG for an investment in the Argo unit, potentially saving billions in development costs.