Elena Lopez

Robotic carts for assistance in delivery for the Spanish Postal Service (S.E. Correos y Telégrafos).

Research areas:
Status: Finished
Type Project: Public_Local
Project leaders: Manuel Ocaña
Collaborators: Ángel Llamazares; Eduardo Molinos; Pedro Revenga; Julio Pastor
Proposed start date: 2018-02-28
Proposed end date: 2018-12-28
Description:

In this first phase of the project, the development of a basic safe navigation application is proposed to demonstrate the feasibility of using a robotic cart as an assistant for letter and package delivery. The following functionalities will be demonstrated in this project:

  1. Safely transporting packages and letters under lock and key. This will be achieved through the design and manufacturing of a fiberglass structure.
  2. Implementing a safe navigation system to avoid pedestrian collisions, running within the ROS (Robot Operating System) framework. Detection and Tracking of Moving Objects (DATMO) algorithms, developed under the General Public License (GPL) by Dr. Ángel Llamazares Llamazares, will be employed and configured, along with obstacle avoidance algorithms developed under GPL by Dr. Eduardo José Molinos Vicente.
  3. Maneuvering curbs. The Seekur robotic platform is capable of overcoming curbs lower than 20 cm. Field tests will be conducted to estimate this capability when the robot is carrying the fiberglass structure, as it will raise the height of the robotic platform above 1 m.
  4. Implementing an optimal planning system to enable efficient delivery in the shortest possible time, reducing the distances traveled to save platform energy consumption.
  5. Tracking the delivery personnel using inertial GPS for subsequent studies on the useful delivery time of the platform.