Employing Quadrupedal Robots as an Innovative Solution for Last-Mile Logistics

This collaboration will look at the feasibility of using four-legged robots to cover the 'last mile' of freight delivery

The purpose of the project is to solve the van-robot routing problem to determine whether quadrupedal robots (Unitree-A1) could efficiently deliver freight in the last mile.

The aims are to: 

1. Conceptualise, design and implement a novel co-simulation environment to determine the optimal delivery method, considering different constraints including machine (robot payload, battery capacity), environmental (terrain configuration) and routing constraints.
2. Develop an open-source proof of concept of a machine-robot system for last-mile logistics with a real-world implementation. 
3. Perform sensitivity analysis of the environmental (CO2, NOx, PM2) and time-efficiency gains. 

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