<< Research Projects Overview << Year Four Projects Overview
Evaluating the Adoption and Impact of Autonomous Delivery Modern Technologies
Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering
Florida Atlantic University
ekaisar@fau.edu
Miguel A. Figliozzi, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Portland State University
figliozzi@pdx.edu
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering
University of Memphis
mgkolias@memphis.edu
Sabyasachee Mishra, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering
University of Memphis
smishra3@memphis.edu
Proposal Summary and Objectives
The tremendous potential of technology-driven innovations to address the inefficiencies in last-mile deliveries has prompted e-commerce companies, retail chains, logistic providers and technology start-ups to invest in sidewalk autonomous delivery robots (SADRs) and road autonomous delivery vehicles (RADRs). The growing appeal for utilizing SADR and RADR technologies arises from the increased demand for same-day deliveries in business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce and the associated challenges for logistics providers. Apart from improving the delivery efficiency, autonomous vehicles have the potential for initiating a more sustainable, and customer focused delivery practice with limited externalities on road congestion, noise and CO2 emissions. Due to the rapid advancements sensing technology and artificial intelligence algorithms, large-scale deployments of autonomous delivery vehicles are on the verge of becoming a reality in some delivery scenarios with known and repeatable routes. SADRs and RADRs developed by Amazon, FedEx, Starship, and Nuro are already deployed and being tested in multiple U.S. cities.
Funding Amount:
$266,000
Status: Complete
Duration:
Sep 1, 2020 - Aug 31, 2021