Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn is testing a new delivery robot “Aito” at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven this summer.
The supermarket chain presented the delivery robot, which resembles the ground-based robot developed by Starship Technologies, at the Digital Food Conference that took place in Amsterdam this week.
Since the Aito robot is not street-legal, it will be tested for a few weeks at the Eindhoven campus where over 100 technology companies and institutions are based. Students and employees on campus can order their products from the nearby store "Albert Heijn to Go" via an app. The Albert Heijn staff then load the products on the vehicle which then sets out for delivery.
Albert Heijn sees time savings for customers as an essential argument for using the robot as they can continue working while their lunch is put together and delivered.
The Aito robot with a reach of 80 km was developed by Swiss start-up TeleRetail, with its development being partly funded by the ESA space agency. It currently costs between €50,000-100,000 but the price could quickly drop to €10,000-20,000, according to estimates. Albert Heijn has no plans to use the robots on public roads in the near future.
The TeleRetail AutoPilot Software Aito drives vehicles of almost any size automating industrial, urban and rural logistics, the start-up says on its website. “Shaping the future of autonomous driving, Aito reduces the cost of transport by up to 90% while enabling cost-efficient 24/7 on-demand logistics services.”
Aito-operated vehicles combine with traditional means of transport leveraging the specific advantages of each mode of transport to facilitate the use of robotics technology in cities, rural areas and in industrial environments.
