(Image Courtesy Domino's Pizza Australia via Marathon Targets)
Last night, Domino’s Australia proudly showed off its little bundle of military-grade robotics that may soon be delivering joy to pizza fans around the world.
Hailed as the "world’s first commercial autonomous delivery vehicle," the Domino's Robotic Unit (nicknamed DRU) is the collaborative creation of Domino's Pizza Australia and Marathon Robotics, an Aussie start-up that's been developing and supplying autnomous robotic targets for military live-fire exercises in Australia and other countries for close to a decade. As Lifehacker Australia reported, the protoype being tested for neighborhood delivery duty weighs about 450 pounds, can extend its (locked) inner hot and cold compartments to reach a total height of close to four feet, and is capable of rocketing its cargo toward hungry patrons at about 12.4 miles per hour.
DRU is reportedly fully autonomous, and sports a water-tight, weather-proof acrylic plastic exterior and aluminum and mild steel interior for keeping orders at their best. Like today's self-driving cars, it uses LIDAR laser-light sensory technology to detect and navigate around obstacles along its journey, and also has a back-up system of traditional sensors (such as you'd find on home cleaning-bots) to ensure it reaches its destination safely.
So far, DRU has been tested on approved pathways and roads Down Under--the same territory, incidentally, in which McDonald's first began testing its own delivery model--and its size, speed, and autonomous navigation mean it won't be hitting regular streets or highways soon. If the makers of DRU and its autonomous delivery-brethren keep tweaking their tech while pushing to meet food and road safety guidelines, however, the little bot's Google Maps- and GPS-powered guidance system might soon be delivering it to neighborhoods worldwide before too long.
[h/t Lifehacker Australia]
