The city of Helsinki has begun trialling autonomous last-mile delivery robots in the quarters of Ruoholahti and Jätkäsaari.
The project is being overseen Forum Virium Helsinki, the city’s innovation group.
Forum Virium Helsinki intentionally trialled the robots during the Christmas period as a means of evaluating the hardware’s ease of use and convenience.
Read more: They see me rolling: a look at last-mile delivery robots
The HeRo robot, developed by LMAD company, is an electric, talking, and autonomously moving delivery robot that offers a precise one-hour delivery window for packages.
Project manager at Forum Virium Helsinki, Satu Reijonen, said: “We first tested HeRo’s functionality and public acceptance in Kalasatama from May to August, where the talking robot delivered tools from Würth Center Sörnäinen to local construction sites.”
Forum Virum Helsinki has plans to expand cooperation between logistics and customer bases during 2024, introducing deploying the robots to larger areas of the city.
Reijonen added: “The next step is to optimise delivery routes more resource-efficiently through collaborative efforts and shared rules, which could accelerate the shift to emission-free logistics across the industry.”
The latest developments in robotics and automated technologies for materials handling will be on show at the Robotics and Automation Exhibition on 19-20 March 2024 at the NEC Birmingham. Register now to attend the UK’s biggest exhibition dedicated to robotics and automation, which is co-located with Britain’s biggest warehousing show, IntraLogisteX!
