Sidewalk Robots

Type

Personal Delivery Device (PDD), Public Mobile Robot

Speed

Low speeds, comparable to a fast walking pace

Criticism

Opposition from pedestrian and transportation advocates

Operation

Self-driving (autonomous) or remote-controlled

Appearance

Small, often described as looking like coolers on wheels

Power Source

Electricity, rechargeable battery

Primary Function

Last-mile delivery of small packages (food, groceries)

Secondary Function

Sidewalk surveying for faults (e.g., cracks, missing bricks)

Environmental Impact

Do not produce carbon emissions during delivery trips

Navigation Technology

Cameras, Sensors, Computer Vision, LiDAR

Key Benefit (Delivery)

Benefit from safe lockboxes

2025-03-05

The robots will spend their days rolling along approximately 45 linear miles of sidewalks, mostly in high density areas like Ballston and Rosslyn, as part of a pilot program ahead of the next sidewalk assessment in 2028. The hope is that the bots might be a more efficient way of surveying the sidewalks for faults like cracks and missing bricks, according to Aidan Shakespeare, who’s part of the engineering team at Arlington County’s Water Sewer Streets Bureau. [...] You could have a robot wink at you on your next run or walk. Recently, the Arlington County released a small fleet of robots—complete with eyes that can wink or display hearts—into the wild as part of a 20-day pilot program between the county and a company called Kiwibot. Originally intended as food delivery robots, the robots are rolling around parts of Rosslyn and Ballston to check for faults in the sidewalks. ### What are the robots doing? [...] Each robot is able to survey about five miles a day. They’re not just scooting around aimlessly, Shakespeare says. They’ve been programmed ahead of time with a specific route and are taking copious photos and using a kind of laser technology called LiDAR to scan the sidewalks along the way.

Market disruption scenario analysis uncovers further non-uniformity in choice probability shifts across automated modes, extending beyond the nesting among drone and robot-based delivery. Sidewalk robots distinctly benefit from enhanced convenience in the form of flexible deliveries without the necessity of a customer’s presence. This is consistent with the strong negative marginal effect of the presence required variable and the positive marginal effect of the flexible delivery window variable [...] Instead, for technologies that provide more secure local deliveries, namely sidewalk and bipedal robots, the presence requirement has a negative impact. When evaluating delivery robots, customers view the presence requirement as an inconvenience. The impact for sidewalk robot is especially large, with a value of − 1.24 (p < 0.001) compared to − 0.441 (p < 0.001) for bipedal robot. Further insight is revealed by considering attribute interactions. This negative impact of requiring presence is [...] transition away from traditional truck delivery. Further insights are obtained by examining the external market scenarios. In these cases, sidewalk robots greatly benefit from the availability of safe lockboxes, resulting in a substantial shift of approximately 10% in choice probability from AVs. Interestingly, in the scenario of shipping cost inflation, where all modes experience delivery cost and time increases relative to the baseline (and more so for the traditional mode reflecting labor

## Companies [edit] ### Sidewalk robots [edit] A number of companies are actively using small robots to do the last-mile delivery of small packages such as food and groceries just using the pedestrian areas of the road and travelling at speed comparable with a fast walking pace, companies actively delivering include: [...] In the 2022 monograph Road to Nowhere "Road to Nowhere (Paris Marx book)"), technology journalist Paris Marx criticizes the deployment of delivery robots on sidewalks, relating instances of robots causing problems for disabled people and noting more widespread opposition from pedestrian and transportation advocates. ## References [edit]

There are many different kinds of personal delivery devices, but the most popular ones look like little coolers on wheels and travel at low speeds along sidewalks and roads. They’re also referred to as sidewalk robots or public mobile robots. ## Why experiment with robots in Boston? [...] Personal delivery devices, or PDDs, are small robots that travel along the ground to deliver food or other cargo. They have cameras and sensors to navigate their environment, and they’re usually self-driving (with a computer vision navigation system) or controlled by a remote operator (who can see the surroundings through the device’s cameras). Because PDDs run off electricity and a rechargeable battery, their delivery trips don’t produce carbon emissions like delivery trips by cars or motor [...] and the City's Shared Vehicle Small Business Advisory Committee.