DC Velocity - February 2017

inbound

With their documented ability to cut fuel bills and greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the use of fossil fuels, electric vehicles (EVs) would seem a no-brainer for green-minded consumers and corporations alike. Yet the EV adoption rate in this country has been dishearteningly slow. A recent survey by Boston-based consulting group Altman Vilandrie & Co. offers some insights into the reasons for the sluggish uptake.

The survey, conducted among 2,500 U.S. consumers in July, indicated that three major hurdles stand in the way of widespread EV adoption: a perceived lack of charging stations (85 percent), high costs (83 percent), and uncertainty over duration of charge ( 74 percent). That was compounded by a general lack of awareness of the vehicles. Despite significant advancements in EV technology, 80 percent of American drivers said they have never ridden in an electric car.

That might sound like a pretty gloomy outlook for electric vehicles, but the study also offered reason for hope. The survey found that a clear majority of consumers who have been inside an EV enjoyed it and that many more would purchase one if lower-priced models were available, specifically at the $35,000 price point and below.

High costs, lack of awareness short-
circuiting electric vehicle adoption

E-commerce companies have proved endlessly creative when it comes to last-mile deliveries, using everything from conventional parcel delivery services to Uber contractors to bicycle and foot couriers. Some are even experimenting with drones and self-driving parcel delivery robots.

Apparently, that array is not diverse enough for megaretailer Amazon.com Inc. Amazon recently filed patents for delivery systems involving flying warehouses and networks of underground tunnels.

In its patent filing for the flying warehouse, Amazon describes a system that uses blimplike airborne fulfillment centers (AFCs) outfitted with drones to drop off orders. To make deliveries, an airship would navigate to the customer’s location, where it would hover about 45,000 feet off the ground and dispatch an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) to deliver the items. As for how it would resupply the AFCs, Amazon would dispatch smaller airborne “shuttles” to replenish the flying warehouses with inventory, drones, fuel, and—yes—human workers.

Amazon’s other recent patent award was for a tunnel delivery network that avoids congested surface roads. Rather than using traditional highways, the e-tailer would whisk parcels and containers to their destinations via subterranean conveyors or rails. Items would ride on standard conveyor belts for horizontal travel underground and then return to the surface via ramps and spiral conveyors.

Anyone who’s gone grocery shopping at the end of a long day knows the unique misery of trudging through endless aisles pushing a balky grocery carriage. Multiply that by, say, a factor of eight and you get an idea of the daily challenge some DC order pickers face.

Now, robotic designers are providing solutions that are applicable to both warehouse pickers and retail shoppers. Technology companies in Europe and the U.S. have introduced automated trolleys that follow pickers through a warehouse—or shoppers through a store—collecting items and eliminating the need for humans to push or pull heavy carts.

In the warehouse version, global logistics giant DHL recently finished a pilot using robotic technology for collaborative order picking in its DHL Supply Chain warehouse in Unna, Germany. For the trial, DHL deployed a robot called Effi-BOT, a fully automated trolley from the French startup Effidence that tags along with pickers as they move through the warehouse.

During the test, two robots supported the facility’s employees by following the pickers, carrying the weight, and automatically dropping off the orders at a packing station.

As for retail applications, in December, Wall, N.J.-based Five Elements Robotics introduced a robotic shopping cart called Dash (see photo). Grocery shoppers can walk up to a Dash unit and transfer a shopping list from their phone. The robot then maps out the best route for retrieving the items and leads the shopper through the store. When the order is finished, Dash can use an onboard scanner and payment system to complete the purchase, avoiding checkout lines. It will even follow the customer out to his or her car to unload. Empty carts head back to the store to plug in, recharge, and rest their feet—er, wheels—until the next shopper calls.