Mobility technology firm Magna and autonomous robotics company Cartken have announced an agreement for Magna to manufacture Cartken’s autonomous delivery robot fleet.
The move comes as part of Cartken’s ambition to meet growing demand for last-mile delivery.
Manufacturing of the Model C bots has reportedly already commenced in a Magna facility in Michigan. Production is expected to increase in the coming months following further collaboration, with the addition of further autonomous delivery models also anticipated.
According to Cartken’s forecast, the agreement’s term should cover the production of thousands of machines.
“We seek strategic partners that can accelerate the trajectory of Cartken’s growth,” said Christian Bersch, co-founder and CEO of Cartken.
“This partnership is a significant step toward scaling our business and getting more Model C’s into the world.
“We’re honoured that Magna, as a global leader with deep systems knowledge and manufacturing excellence, recognised the potential of our robots and the quality of our technology.
“We’re inspired by Magna’s push into new spaces and are excited to move forward together in our effort to scale distribution.”
Cartken claims its fully autonomous delivery robots can operate outdoors and indoors and are equipped with remote monitoring and teleoperation capabilities, which still support manual override. The bots are fitted with several cameras to support real-time situation response using a combination of machine learning and simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM)-based navigation.
The autonomous robotics firm reports that its fleet is in commercial operation across the globe, having been used in malls, hotels, universities, retail, back-of-house and warehouses, among other facilities.