Autonomous delivery vehicle company Avride has a new design and artificial intelligence brains from NVIDIA. The company's engineers have interchanged the old six-wheel configuration for a more efficient four-wheel chassis. You can make 180-degree turns almost instantly, park effortlessly on slopes, and move faster without compromising safety.
Avride has been working on autonomous delivery robots since 2019. It started as part of the autonomous driving wing of Russian technology company Yandex. But the split company divested of its Russian assets after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and renamed it Avride. It is now owned by the Netherlands-based Nebius Group (formerly Yandex NV), which is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and which makes deals with companies such as Uber.
The company's latest delivery robot changes one of the few constants of previous versions: they all had six wheels. The new four-wheeled robo-buggy uses an “innovative chassis design” that eliminates some of the rough spots of previous generations. These included additional friction and tire wear caused by excessive braking required to turn, reduced maneuverability, and less precise trajectory execution. Avride says the new model improves dramatically in all of those aspects.
The wheels of the new vehicle are mounted on moving arms attached to a pivoting axle. For turns, each wheel slides along a circular path stabilized by the central arm. “This design allows the wheels to turn both inward and outward, reducing friction during turns,” the company wrote in its announcement blog post.
A central element of the new design is ditching the traditional front and rear axles for pairs of mechanically connected wheels on each side. Avride says this allows for simultaneous adjustment of the steering angle, leading to more precise positioning and maneuvering.
Among the results of the new approach are nearly instantaneous 180-degree turns. Avride says this especially helps when riding on narrow sidewalks, where sudden adjustments might be necessary. Parking on slopes is also more energy efficient: you now position your wheels in a criss-cross pattern to park in place without plummeting downward. Tighter controls also allowed the company to increase its top speed. “This means faster deliveries for our customers,” the company wrote. (And, presumably, more profits.)
The new generation of delivery robots not only got a new body, but also became more intelligent. Powered by the NVIDIA Jetson Orin platform, essentially an “ai brain for robots,” the vehicles can now leverage neural networks as powerful as those in full-size self-driving cars. This allows them to process “large amounts” of sensor data, such as lidar inputs and camera feeds, in real time.
Finally, it wouldn't be a delivery buggy without a cargo compartment, and that was improved as well. The new model has a completely removable storage section, allowing for modular changes for different purposes. Avride says its standard cargo hold is large enough to hold several large pizzas and drinks or several grocery bags. It also adds a sliding lid that only provides access to the correct section, helping to avoid delivering orders to the wrong customers.
Engineering and design nerds can read much more detail about the new robots at Avride Medium Post.
