In a bid to address the challenge of high last-mile delivery costs, Vayu Robotics has launched the world’s first on-road delivery robot that combines the power of modern AI foundation models with lidar-less, low-cost passive sensors.
According to the company, traditional mobile robotics rely on costly lidar sensors and software modules built to do one task at a time, leading to expensive hardware and fragile software unable to handle new scenarios.
Vayu’s robot does the opposite, combining a transformer-based mobility foundation model with a powerful passive sensor that eliminates the need for lidar, enabling the robot to operate autonomously without pre-mapping the roads it intends to drive on. It is also capable of navigating inside stores, on city streets and unloading packages on driveways or porches, carrying up to 100 lbs at under 20mph. This model is the first of its kind, offering the most cost-effective, safe, reliable delivery system on the market, according to Vayu.
“The unique set of technologies we have developed at Vayu has allowed us to solve problems that have plagued delivery robots over the past decade, and finally create a solution that can actually be deployed at scale and enable the cheap transportation of goods everywhere,” confirmed Vayu Robotics CEO Anand Gopalan.
Real-world operations
Vayu’s delivery robots are already being debuted in real-world applications. The company recently signed a substantial commercial agreement with a large e-commerce player to deploy 2,500 robots to enable ultra-fast goods delivery, with similar commercial customers in the pipeline. The team is also working with a leading global robotics manufacturer to replace lidar sensors with Vayu’s sensing technology for other robotic applications.
Gopalan explained, “Our software is robot form factor agnostic and we have already deployed it across several wheeled form factors. In the near future, Vayu’s software technology will enable the movement of quadrupedal and bipedal robots, allowing us to expand into those markets as well.”
Wave of opportunities
Vayu has previously raised US$12.7m to fuel its mission to remove the hardware and software bottlenecks that have stunted the growth of e-commerce. Looking ahead, Vayu’s founders believe their revolutionary low-cost robotics nervous system can power a new wave of mobile robots in other use cases, too. “Autonomous delivery robots are only the tip of the iceberg,” concluded Gopalan.