TOKYO: Automated delivery robots remotely monitored by humans will be able to hit Japanese public roads from April under the revised road traffic law, raising hopes that they will be much-needed “manpower” in the logistics industry.

Trials for deliveries of food and daily necessities by robots have been conducted in residential and business districts.

A test of the DeliRo unmanned delivery robot took place in the Tsukishima district of Tokyo’s Chuo Ward last month. The robot moved at a speed close to the pace of an adult’s brisk walk on a major street to carry a hamburger from a store to an office located about 500 meters away.

The electric robot is equipped with map data on local pedestrian paths. It also has six cameras so that it can detect and avoid pedestrians and obstacles, and can identify the colors of traffic lights. The robot can move its LCD “eyes” and give audio warnings such as “turning right.”

DeliRo was developed by Tokyo-based startup ZMP Inc. The company began tests of DeliRo jointly with Japanese energy giant Eneos Holdings Inc. about two years ago, with the Tsukishima trial being the third one.

In the third trial, a total of four DeliRos deployed at two gas stations used as charging bases covered an area spanning 1 kilometer north-to-south and 2.7 kilometers east-to-west, which includes 17,000 households.

In the second trial held over a month in February 2022, two DeliRos covered an area with 6,000 households. They received several dozen orders in total per day on average, of which 85 pct were by people in their 20s to 40s.

A survey of users showed that “some people prefer robot deliveries in terms of hygiene and safety,” ZMP President Hisashi Taniguchi said.

The company aims to create by 2024 a scheme in which one person can remotely monitor 10 DeliRos.

According to the industry ministry, tests of automated delivery robots have been held in five of the country’s 47 prefectures.

“In regions with declining populations, robots can be a way to resolve the lack of workers in the logistics industry in the future,” a ministry official said.

JIJI Press