Over the last decade, Autonomous Delivery Robots (ADRs) have transformed conventional delivery methods, responding to the growing e-commerce demand. However, the readiness of ADRs to navigate safely among pedestrians in shared urban areas remains an open question. We contend that there are crucial research gaps in understanding their interactions with pedestrians in such environments. Human Pose Estimation is a vital stepping stone for various downstream applications, including pose prediction and socially aware robot path-planning. Yet, the absence of an enriched and pose-labeled dataset capturing human-robot interactions in shared urban areas hinders this objective. In this paper, we bridge this gap by repurposing, fusing, and labeling two datasets, MOT17 and NCLT, focused on pedestrian tracking and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), respectively. The resulting unique dataset represents thousands of real-world indoor and outdoor human-robot interaction scenarios. Leveraging YOLOv7, we obtained human pose visual and numeric outputs and provided ground truth poses using manual annotation. To overcome the distance bias present in the traditional MPJPE metric, this study introduces a novel human pose estimation error metric called Mean Scaled Joint Error (MSJE) by incorporating bounding box dimensions into it. Findings demonstrate that YOLOv7 effectively estimates human pose in both datasets. However, it exhibits weaker performance in specific scenarios, like indoor, crowded scenes with a focused light source, where both MPJPE and MSJE are recorded as 10.89 and 25.3, respectively. In contrast, YOLOv7 performs better in single-person estimation (NCLT seq 2) and outdoor scenarios (MOT17 seq1), achieving MSJE values of 5.29 and 3.38, respectively.

From self-driving machines that deliver parcels to anti-anxiety pillows which can'breathe', robots are front and center at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week - as they seek to wheel themselves in every aspect of daily life. CES is an annual tech conference held in Las Vegas. More than 100,000 people are attending this year - the first time the show has been at full capacity since the Covid 19 pandemic. So far this week, Ottonomy has unveiled a'Yeti' with a self-dispensing feature that eliminates the need for a human to be present to collect deliveries. Yukai Engineering, a repeat exhibitor at the event, also showcased a pillow robot that'breathes' when hugged to help reduce the user's anxiety - and it claims to work in just five minutes. Meanwhile, the new chirping Ebo X wants to be a part of the family, providing security and health warnings as well as helping owners speak to loved ones.

FedEx is calling it quits on its cute but mostly ineffective "Roxo" last mile autonomous delivery robot. The move comes just weeks after Amazon ended field tests and gutted the team working on its Scout delivery robot. Sriram Krishnasamy, the package delivery giant's Chief Transformation Officer, reportedly broke the news to staff of Roxo's shattering last week as part of a broader internal organizational program called DRIVE, according to emails first obtained by Robotics 24/7. "Although robotics and automation are key pillars of our innovation strategy, Roxo did not meet necessary near-term value requirements for DRIVE," Krishnasamy reportedly wrote. "Although we are ending the research and development efforts, Roxo served a valuable purpose: to rapidly advance our understanding and use of robotic technology." FedEx did not immediately respond to Gizmodo's request for comment but told Robotics 24/7 it's shifting away from Roxo, in part, to focus on, "several nearer-term opportunities."

Ottonomy robots help navigate businesses with staffing shortages for retail and restaurant industries. Our fully autonomous robots can deliver food & beverages, groceries, and packages to curbside, last mile, and even indoor environments. Ottonomy robots are available on a "RaaS" (Robotics as a Service) model. Our business customers get access to a quicker, safer, and more economical delivery option as compared to traditional 3rd party delivery services. Above all these robots are set to reduce carbon emissions and improve quality of life.

Starship Technologies, one of the earlier companies to enter the outdoor robot delivery market, recently laid off 11% of its global workforce. The company, which has engineering headquarters in Estonia and business headquarters in San Francisco, said it has been negatively impacted by the "dramatic downward shifts" in the global economy and investment market. While it's unclear exactly how many employees Starship has, a LinkedIn search finds 622 people list Starship as their current employer. On top of the layoffs, Starship is closing a small number of unnamed service locations in the U.S. and Germany over the next two months. It said all of the changes focus on cost savings and improving profitability.

The latest delivery robot designed by Pudu, BellaBot inherits the outstanding characteristics of the previous generation, while being endowed with superior human-Robot interaction capabilities. Featuring an innovative bionic design language, cute modeling, AI voice functionality, multi-modal interaction and many other new functions, BellaBot provides users with an unprecedented food delivery robot experience. BellaBot supports both Laser SLAM and Visual SLAM positioning and navigation solutions in order to adapt to more scenarios. Both of which are accurate and easy to use. Both positioning solutions which BellaBot offers provides the same excellent user experience.

Japan is paving the way for autonomous delivery robots to become part of everyday life as the social distancing drive for the coronavirus pandemic makes the push all the more vital. The coronavirus crisis has increased the appeal of services that allow for reduced human contact and Japanese firms are counting on the potential of robots that can deliver a range of products from nearby warehouses or shops to consumers. In August, an autonomous delivery robot by ZMP Inc. dubbed DeliRo will deliver soba dishes to customers for a trial run in Tokyo. Customers can place orders via tablet computers during the trial from Aug. 12 to 16 near JR Takanawa Gateway Station, make a cashless payment and have their food delivered by robot within a designated area. "We want to explore what kinds of autonomous delivery services are possible and what the DeliRo can offer at a time when new lifestyles are called for amid the coronavirus outbreak," a ZMP official said.

In the current times where human to human interaction can be fatal in many areas and everything is dependent on one-touch away services through mobile apps, service providers must facilitate customers with the best service and delivery experiences. It is high time that vendors should enhance their last-mile delivery services with efficiency. The movements of goods from the transportation hub to the final destination, specifically personal residence in most of the cases, are termed as last-mile delivery. The last mile logistics are currently focusing on delivering items to end-users as fast as possible. Here are the top 10 most innovative companies building autonomous delivery robots that may come soon to your neighborhood.

Researchers at MIT have developed a new method of navigation for robots that could be very useful for the range of companies working on autonomous last-mile delivery. In short, the team has worked out how a robot can figure out the location of a front door, without being provided a specific map in advance. Most last-mile autonomous delivery robots today, including the "wheeled cooler"-style variety that was pioneered by Starship and has since been adopted by a number of other companies, including Postmates, basically meet customers at the curb. Mapping isn't the only barrier to having future delivery bots go all the way to the door, just like the humans who make those deliveries today. MIT News points out that mapping an entire neighborhood with the level of specificity required to do true front-door delivery would be incredibly difficult -- particularly at national (let alone global) scale.

Mix the rise of e-commerce in Japan with a chronic labor shortage and a graying society and what do you get? "I'm delivering delicious food," announced CarriRo Deli, a robot the size of a cooler box that was navigating a South Korean apartment complex in April, bringing food and drinks to residents during a trial of its "last-mile" delivery service. The robot's maker, Tokyo-based ZMP Inc., has already held a number of delivery trials at university campuses and elsewhere in Japan and is looking for partners to help it develop the business further. Aside from having a 50 kg cargo capacity and a speed of 6 kph, the robot speaks short phrases like "hello" and "thank you" and has LED eyes, a feature aimed at making it more lifelike and engaging when interacting with people. "It would be scary if a simple box was running around places," ZMP Manager Hiromasa Iwano explained at a gathering in Tokyo in late July, adding the company took into account how people would react to the robots. "We wanted to create a robot that is well-received, socially." ZMP CEO Hisashi Taniguchi said at the same event that CarriRo Deli was the world's only autonomous delivery robot with eyes when it was revealed last year, noting that although eyes had long been a feature industrial designers avoided, others are now following suit.