Delivery bot beats traffic to reach technicians and slash lift maintenance time

Broken lifts need fixing quickly, as anyone who has been stuck in one will know.

City traffic can delay technicians coming to the rescue, but now two companies hope an autonomous robot could provide a solution.

Thyssenkrupp Elevator displayed its delivery robot from TeleRetail at the Washington Auto Show last week, where they highlighted its use in a research project aimed at making lift maintenance in cities quicker and more efficient.

The droid, which is just 85cm wide and can avoid road congestion by travelling on pavements, can deliver up to 35kg of spare parts and other materials.

With rapid urbanisation and rising traffic levels in cities around the world, the companies hope the project can slash job times and show autonomous technology’s wide potential in logistics.

“Fast-growing American metropolitan areas need intelligent solutions to cover the last mile in delivering spare parts to our technicians,” said Ivo Siebers from Thyssenkrupp Elevator. “With driverless delivery robots we could fill a gap and get spare parts from our warehouses to the job site faster, more efficiently and with less impact on the environment.”