Background History
With the strong emergence of e-commerce in the last decade, shipping capabilities have grown dramatically. Although numerous improvements have been made in the sector, high-volume times like during the holidays prove problematic for both human and current machinery sources. Robotic mail delivery is the shipping of these items bought off of the world wide web and uses semi to full automation to improve efficiency over traditional processes.
How It Works
The process begins when a consumer orders a product off of the internet. The website then sends a signal to the warehouse, which then has a robot sent the product to a shipping facility if required. Upon arrival, the product is sorted and labeled completely automatically. An autonomous vehicle then transports the product to other shipping centers, when the process is repeated until the product is in the hands of the consumer.
Impacts/Future Growth
Both the fields of e-commerce and robotics continue to grow, making the idea of robotic mail delivery much more feasible. Although the robots to take job opportunities from hard-working individuals, they offer more high-paying jobs in the fields of mechanics and engineering to repair and redesign the robots.
Pros
- Provides efficiently in a complicated process
- Cost effective in the long-term
- Provides more mechanical/engineering related jobs
Cons
- Large cost in the short-term
- Takes away jobs from current workers in the industry
Works Cited
Calnan, Christopher. “Robot-Assisted Mail Delivery Testing Continues to Expand, This Time in Australia.” The Robot Report, 29 Oct. 2017, www.therobotreport.com/robot-assisted-mail-delivery-testing-continues-expand-time-australia/.
Guerrini, Federico. “Self-Driving Robots Will Soon Deliver The Mail In Switzerland.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 26 Aug. 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/federicoguerrini/2016/08/26/will-automation-spell-the-end-of-the-mailman-delivery-robots-soon-to-appear-on-swiss-streets/#3acb2f1a5ea7.
Reuters. “Robots Might Be The Future Of Mail Delivery.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Apr. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/robots-deliver-mail-germany_us_5706857de4b0a506064e632a.
Multimedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkYOnZDr0Lk
https://www.healthcarepackaging.com/article/machine-attributes/robotic/yaskawa-motoman-robotic-pharmaceutical-workcell
https://www.2025ad.com/latest/driverless-delivery-when-a-robot-brings-your-pizza/
