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Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity pictured with Kar-go

Kar-go, is an autonomous delivery vehicle, designed and built by British company, Academy of Robotics Ltd,[1] a UK company, registered in Wales. The vehicle uses self-drive / driverless car technology to drive itself to locations where it delivers packages autonomously.[2]

History

The parent company, Academy of Robotics, was founded in 2017 by entrepreneur William Sachiti at Aberystwyth University.[3] With a £10,000 grant from the university as part of its InvEnterPrize scheme, Academy of Robotics began developing the technology and the first prototype for Kar-go was unveiled in 2017.[3] In late 2016, the company partnered with Pilgrim Motorsports, a specialist UK car manufacturer to build the Kar-go Delivery Bot vehicles.[4] In early 2017, the parent company Academy of Robotics was announced to be part of NVIDIA‘s accelerator to further develop Kar-go.[5][6] Shortly after the company’s first crowdfunding raise in 2018, Academy of Robotics unveiled its autonomous data-gathering vehicles. These vehicles were used to develop Kar-go’s driverless vehicle technology. Data such as imagery for object recognition and geometry to measure distance were collected, to be processed for use in their autonomous vehicles. Having developed basic prototypes to test the vision system, Academy of Robotics went on to develop custom-built vehicle hardware. The resulting Kar-go delivery bot vehicle  was unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2019.[7][8][9]

As a new vehicle type, the Kar-go Delivery Bot underwent an assessment from the UK’s DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency), who verified that the core vehicle was roadworthy. Following minor modifications to install the autonomous technology, the vehicle was ready for road trials.[10]

Having satisfied the core UK government requirements (being a roadworthy vehicle, having appropriate insurance in place and a driver or operator, in or out of the vehicle, who is ready, able, and willing to resume control of the vehicle),[11]

These initial deliveries were part of a trial supported by funding for no-human-contact deliveries from UK Research and Innovation [12] as part of the Government’s modern industrial strategy. Academy of Robotics chose to begin these first deliveries with the delivery of medical supplies from pharmacies to care [13] homes in the London Borough of Hounslow.[14][15][16]

As part of these trials, the company developed a system for a remote command centre for a fleet of self-driving vehicles.[17]

In February 2021, the company announced that it would be expanding its autonomous delivery trials to Surrey and other parts of the UK.[18] The Surrey trials saw the company deliver goods for local Banstead (Surrey) store, Something Special.[19]

In September 2021, the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Academy of Robotics announced that the RAF had been trialling the use of Kar-go autonomous delivery vehicles at the UK’s largest airbase, RAF Brize Norton.[20] The trials were jointly funded by the Academy of Robotics and the RAF’s Astra innovation programme to understand and investigate the potential to use autonomous delivery vehicles to support the work of RAF personnel.[21]

To comply with security regulations on the base by minimising data capture during the trials, the company developed a proprietary system to minimise data capture and enable the vehicle to navigate safely without the normal levels of scanning and training.[21] The Surrey trials and the RAF trials[20][21] were featured on BBC Click[22] in late September 2021 showcasing the company’s latest innovation, the Mobile Command Hub which enables the company to monitor and remotely take-over control from the Kar-go vehicles if necessary. This remote take-over functionality enables the company to operate without having a safety driver in the vehicle in full compliance with UK guidelines for trials of autonomous vehicles on the roads.[23]

“Milton,” a helper bot, developed by Academy of Robotics in the corridor at Milton Keynes University Hospital

The technology developed to operate the Kar-go vehicles has since been applied to “Helper Bots” developed by Academy of Robotics in close collaboration with staff at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. In December 2022 Academy of Robotics unveiled its “Milton” Helper Bot, which the company had developed to support staff by automating the delivery of medicines in hospitals. The company began trials of their Helper Bot technology at Milton Keynes University Hospital at the end of 2022.[24]

Technology

Localisation on the route is achieved by fusing data from Visual SLAM (Simultaneous localisation and mapping),[25] GPS feeds and pre-existing off-line map features.[26] Real-time perception is implemented via a novel modular hierarchical architecture consisting of multiple function specific neural networks and computer vision algorithms that have been fine-tuned for the particular route.

The control software is completely autonomous once delivery timings and locations are determined. This is done autonomous using the Academy of Robotics’ proprietary vision system. It makes high-level navigation turns such as intersection turns, lane changes etc. based on the vehicle’s presence in a ‘global map space’ which is updated continuously based on factors such as delivery locations, traffic, routes of other delivery vehicles etc.

The company’s research focuses on applying bio-inspired algorithms [27] to solve challenging vision-based problems. Rather than using technology like LiDAR, Kar-go uses camera vision.[25][28][29]

The sensor suite focuses on vision with 6-8 cameras fitted on the vehicle depending on the particular operational configuration. The vehicle has GPS, IMU and a ring of sonar/distance sensors around it for a perception redundancy.[27][13]

Production

Kar-go was built in the UK in West Sussex. The vehicle was built in collaboration between the team at Academy of Robotics, the engineering team at Pilgrim Motorsports and Muscle Car UK’s factory where it was being built from scratch. Some of the Kar-go scientists and engineers are also based at Pilgrim Motorsports. In March 2018, the company announced that it had hired multi-award-winning vehicle design expert Paul Burgess from McLaren who led the engineering team.

See also

References

  1. ^ “Pioneering driverless Kar-Go delivery vehicle to reach UK roads in 2018”. Autocar. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  2. ^ “the kar-go self-driving robot delivers straight to your door”. designboom | architecture & design magazine. 7 June 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  3. ^ a b “Car-go delivers £10,000 InvEnterPrize”. Aberystwyth University. 30 March 2017.
  4. ^ “Cambridge should be the perfect test bed for driver-less cars”. Cambridge News. 30 May 2017. Archived from the original on 16 July 2017.
  5. ^ “NVIDIA : Academy of Robotics is developing Kar-Go – one of the world’s first AI controlled pod-shaped driverless vehicles to autonomously deliver multiple packages to residential areas, with the aim to remove the need for humans in last mile delivery”. 4-traders. 30 May 2017.
  6. ^ “Pioneering driverless Kar-Go delivery vehicle to reach UK roads in 2018”. Autocar. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  7. ^ “A Week in European Automotive: Startups Reinventing the Car”. EE Times Asia. 10 July 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  8. ^ Best, Shivali (6 July 2019). “Europe’s first driverless delivery robot makes worldwide debut at Goodwood”. mirror. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  9. ^ https://twitter.com/reuters/status/1326595547990552579?lang=en. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ^ “DVSA approval for Kar-go delivery bot”. www.commercialfleet.org. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  11. ^ “Code of Practice: Automated vehicle trialling”. GOV.UK. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  12. ^ “UK Research & Innovation Publicly Funded Trials”.
  13. ^ a b “Kar-go Autonomous Vehicle Begins Contactless Delivery to Care Homes by TomLombardo”. Engineering.com. 18 November 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  14. ^ “UK’s first robot delivery vehicle completes landmark journey”. The Independent. 10 November 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  15. ^ Hounslow, London Borough of. “Hounslow to trial UK’s first autonomous road delivery vehicle”. www.hounslow.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  16. ^ “Command Hub White Paper” (PDF). Academy of Robotics. January 2021.
  17. ^ Hounslow, London Borough of. “Hounslow to trial UK’s first autonomous road delivery vehicle”. www.hounslow.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  18. ^ “Autonomous delivery bots trial extended”. BusinessCloud. 1 February 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  19. ^ “Surrey boutique to trial self-driving delivery vehicle to customers TODAY”. Surrey Comet. 21 August 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  20. ^ a b Browning, Oliver (22 September 2021). “Royal Air Force trialing the use of self-driving, zero-emissions cars”. The Independent. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  21. ^ a b c “Royal Air Force launches first trial of self-driving technology on its airbases”. www.defenceprocurementinternational.com. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  22. ^ Click – What’s On The Menu?, retrieved 18 October 2021
  23. ^ “Code of Practice: Automated vehicle trialling”. GOV.UK. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  24. ^ Min, Roselyne (1 February 2023). “Hospitals are turning to helper bots to solve chronic staff shortages”. euronews. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  25. ^ a b Dr Elio, Tucci (2018). “GPS Free Navigation” (PDF). EsaNN.org.
  26. ^ “Navigational Free-space Scientific Paper”. Esaan.org.[permanent dead link]
  27. ^ a b Narayan, Aparajit; Tuci, Elio; Labrosse, Frédéric; Mohammed Alkilabi, Muhanad H. (31 January 2018). “A dynamic colour perception system for autonomous robot navigation on unmarked roads” (PDF). Neurocomputing. 275: 2251–2263. doi:10.1016/j.neucom.2017.11.008. ISSN 0925-2312. S2CID 45875562.
  28. ^ “Robotic car uses AI to deliver care home medicine – Technology”. Reuters. November 2020.
  29. ^ “Academy of Robotics and Eurovia to evaluate Kar-go for road maintenance”. Robotics and Innovation. 18 November 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2021.