Cranfield University has announced that it will be serving as a testbed for delivery robots in a ‘UK first’.
Cranfield will be partnering with delivery-service platform Peyk, which won the Innovation in Transportation Award at the inaugural Robotics & Automation Awards.
The trial is set to being in the spring and will offer the robots the chance to respond to real-world obstacles and environments.
Peyk hopes that the bots will support staff and students by delivering books, food and post. It is designed to traverse kerbs and to carry loads of different sizes.
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Gilbert Tang, a senior lecturer in robotics at Cranfield University, said: “With delivery robots becoming a more common sight on UK pavements, we’re delighted to be the first university campus to rollout this kind of service to our students and staff.
“This is also a fantastic opportunity for our students to learn directly from a robotics company and apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios.”
According to Cranfield University, the students will be able to hire and control PeykBots as needed..
What’s more, the institution expects to help fine-tune the robots’ systems to support rollouts on other UK university campuses, the university added.
Salman Moghimi, the founder and chief executive of Peyk, said: “This collaboration also enables the students to have a hands-on experience on real operational robots, as well as potentially creating unique post-study job opportunities.”
