You may have heard that giant companies such as Amazon or Walmart are struggling to convince the Federal Aviation Administration to free the path for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that would deliver packages to customers. Well, it’s an ongoing process that may last a while longer. Meanwhile, there’s an industrial designer who figured drones don’t necessarily have to be flying to do the job.
Industrial designer Kobi Shiker has envisioned a set of concept robot drones that will help in the field of transportation and delivery. Dubbed Transwheel, it represents the final project the student did at Shenkar College in Israel. As we mentioned, we’re looking at an autonomous robotic wheel that is based on a self-balancing system with retractable electric arms and GPS communication capabilities.
According to Design Boom, the concept was designed to work both by itself or as a group. The robots would be able to deliver packages around the clock, as small as a courier boxes and as big as shipping containers. Look at it as a response to Amazon and Walmart’s UAV delivery programs, only that these robots would be more robust and versatile. Now, there are a couple of set backs with this concept.
First of all, how would they be allowed in traffic, considering autonomous cars themselves are far from hitting the road freely? Sure, Google got approval for their self-driving fleet running around their headquarters, but under strict and concrete conditions. It doesn’t mean that autonomous are everywhere or will get to replace the regular ones anytime soon. If the bigger vehicles capable of driving themselves are far from being legal, how would the Transwheel be able to drive on the streets?
Second of all, where do these machines get their power range from? What keeps thieves from stealing them and, more important, what stops vandals from destroying them on the streets? After all, we recently found that drivers are not that fond of robots with some type of a personality.
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