The less the contact among people the less is the chance of spreading the coronavirus. Ford and Agility Robotics have teamed up to develop a two-legged delivery robot called Digit. It stands up and walks just like human beings. It is a headless robot that can unfold and fold itself from the back of an autonomous car. One just has to assign it with the deliveries that need to be dropped off.

CTO of Agility Robotics Jonathan Hurst said “Our goal with Digit is to have a robot as a mobility platform that can be inhuman spaces go where people go and work with people. And there are so many applications where that’s going to be a useful and important task. One of the big ones is package delivery.”

He further shared “A robot vehicle that can drive on all our roads is going to be able to do that. But how do you get it from the vehicle to the doorstep? And that’s where our robot comes in. That’s what Digit can do.” Ford shared how he can navigate through stairs and get around unexpected obstacles while carrying a maximum of 40lbs of weight. According to Ford Digit has LiDAR sensors and several stereo cameras fitted in it which helps it to navigate. The same technology that is used on self-driving cars.

Jim McBride Ford’s senior technical leader in robotics explained the whole process of navigation and deliveries in detail. He said: “We’d envision the autonomous vehicle to arrive at the site with all the information you’d need to know about starting a mission. We’d have the prior maps and the vehicle would be able to aid the robot when it got out of the vehicle in knowing where it was and where it needs to go.”

He further said “And additionally the autonomous vehicle is full of sensors and computers that can help the robot which is a little bit thriftier around those components. Should it run into any difficulties in package delivery we can either solve the problem on the car or we can relay that information to the cloud for further assistance.”

The autonomous car the technologies used in assisting and navigating is all too fascinating. The autonomous car will be there with Digit to help it in assisting and navigating if any problem arises. Ford and Agility Robotics have their hands deep down in the new contactless delivery system. But there is no word when they will launch it in the world. Once Digit is unleashed in the real world the industry of home delivery will never be the same again. Till the new system is in place one should maintain social distancing and take all the necessary precautions.

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