Self-driving, burrito-carrying rovers are going to talk to us with their eyes
This cute new robot is a bundle of sensors and smarts. Here’s how it works.
By Rob Verger Yesterday at 2:13pm
Part of the way this rover communicates is with its eyes.
Postmates.
If autonomous rovers are going to start bringing us burritos and pasta and maybe even the occasional vegetable dish—as delivery company Postmates hopes that they will—they’re going to have to learn some social skills. For one, they’ll need to figure out how to make their way down crowded sidewalks. They’ll also have to communicate with people to let them know what they’re doing, since autonomous bots, and self-driving cars, can’t talk or gesture the way humans do.
The latest droid built for lugging takeout is a servile bot called Serve, and Postmates designed it to make short-haul deliveries in cities. To know what’s going on, it has a lidar sensor on top, in which spinning lasers let it perceive objects around it and know how far away they are. (It’s similar to what you’ll find guiding self-driving cars on the roads.) That’s not all. Behind each artificial eye is a camera, with six more imaging devices spread around the ‘bot. In its cargo bin is another sensor that allows Postmates to know if there is a package in there or not.
https://www.popsci.com/postmates-delivery-rover-serve
