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A drawing from DoorDash’s patent submitting for a supply robotic. | Credit score: DoorDash/USPTO
Final week, DoorDash launched DoorDash Labs, its robotics and automation division that’s been working since 2018. DoorDash has examined last-mile supply with quite a lot of robotics firms since 2017, together with Cruise, Marble and Starship Applied sciences. Nonetheless, none of these options appear to have caught for DoorDash.
The meals supply large seems to be growing its personal autonomous supply robots.
DoorDash hasn’t publicly revealed any particulars about its supply robots, however it has filed a number of related patents with the US Patent and Trademark Workplace. In Might 2019, it filed two patents for an autonomous supply car. The patents have been accredited in September and October of 2021 and embrace diagrams of an autonomous supply robotic.
DoorDash informed The Robotic Report that patents aren’t essentially indicators of what’s truly below growth. Whereas the robots DoorDash finally publicly reveals might look and work otherwise, the patents and diagrams no less than give us a glimpse of what DoorDash has in thoughts.
“DoorDash Labs’ purpose is to develop and implement robotics options that complement the Dasher neighborhood, improve effectivity in our total community, and lead to a extra environment friendly, improved expertise for all audiences DoorDash serves,” a Doordash spokesperson mentioned in an emailed assertion. “We’re dedicated to working carefully with security specialists and regulatory stakeholders to implement finest practices as we discover the in-house growth of automation applied sciences.”
This drawing exhibits a facet view of what DoorDash’s supply robotic might appear to be. | DoorDash/USPTO
The patents don’t reveal an excessive amount of in regards to the specs of the robotic. In a single patent, DoorDash describes an autonomous car that might carry two to 3 22-inch pizza bins. DoorDash makes use of the phrases “numerous embodiments,” that means the scale and storage capacities might differ going ahead. In response to the patent, the car might navigate pedestrian pathways, sidewalks, bike lanes and roadways in residential areas. The car might attain speeds between 18-25 mph and weigh between 200-300 lb.
In a single patent, DoorDash mentioned its robotic might have a sensor that extends upward from the physique of the robotic at a peak of 3-5 ft. DoorDash has filed patents for numerous different elements for an autonomous supply car, together with a digital car management system and a sensor stack for an automatic supply car.
For comparability, supply robots from Starship are 22.5 inches tall, weigh 55 lb. and may carry as much as 30 lbs. Nuro’s R2 supply car is far bigger than Starship’s robots, providing payload capability of 419 lbs and most pace of 25 MPH.
A drawing of DoorDash’s supply robotic with an open storage compartment. | Credit score: DoorDash/USPTO
DoorDash additionally employed Ashu Rege as DoorDash Labs’ new vice chairman of autonomy. Rege spent six years at Zoox, an autonomous car firm. At Zoox, Rege spent three years because the senior vice chairman of software program engineering. Zoox was based in 2014, and acquired by Amazon in 2020 for $1.2 billion.
In its announcement of DoorDash Labs, DoorDash mentioned it “recognized a niche in current automation functions,” and it’s trying to fill that hole with its personal know-how. DoorDash mentioned it’s in search of an answer that’s constructed to scale and is absolutely built-in with its system.
Many autonomous supply robots use a last-mile supply system, the place the robotic picks up the order from a location between the service provider and buyer, after which delivers the meals to the client. DoorDash is trying to automate the center mile of its deliveries utilizing a hub-to-hub mannequin. On this mannequin, orders can be aggregated in areas with many retailers, like a shopping center, and the robotic would carry the order to a hub nearer to prospects. A human “Dasher” might then decide up orders from the hub and convey them to the client.
In DoorDash’s hub-to-hub mannequin, a robotic would transfer between service provider and client hubs with deliveries.
No stranger to robotics
DoorDash isn’t any stranger to supply robots or autonomous autos. It’s been testing numerous robots since 2017, when it first partnered with Starship Applied sciences. Later in 2017, DoorDash partnered with Marble Robotic, to start testing robotic deliveries in San Francisco. Most just lately, in 2019, DoorDash partnered with Cruise to check its autonomous automobiles’ capability to ship orders in San Francisco.
In August of 2019, DoorDash acquired Scotty Labs, a tele-operations firm engaged on know-how that may permit folks to remotely management self-driving autos.
In February 2021, it acquired Chowbotics, an organization that created a robotic that assembled customized bowls on-demand in an hermetic, refrigerated container. DoorDash mentioned it has been increasing its robotics workforce with strategic acquisitions, like Chowbotics.
DoorDash Labs is trying to rent autonomy engineers, robotics technicians and software program engineers for autonomy platforms. All indicators appear to level in direction of DoorDash rolling out its personal autonomous supply robots.
