Print Email Facebook Twitter Assessment of readiness of a traffic environment for autonomous delivery robots Title Assessment of readiness of a traffic environment for autonomous delivery robots Author Arntz, E.M. (Jelmer Talent Lab) van Duin, Ron (TU Delft Transport and Logistics; Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences) van Binsbergen, A.J. (TU Delft Transport and Planning) Tavasszy, Lorant (TU Delft Transport and Planning; TU Delft Transport and Logistics) Klein, T. (The Future Mobility Network) Date 2023 Abstract Introduction: Autonomous delivery robots are a promising alternative for last-mile delivery. To realise successful implementation of delivery robots in public spaces, it is important to study the interaction between robots and the traffic environment. The traffic environment includes the physical infrastructure and the objects using it like cars and people.Methods: This research proposes an assessment method to determine the readiness of a traffic environment for autonomous delivery robots. A conceptual model is proposed that includes the factors that determine this so-called “roboreadiness”. The two key components of the model are the performance of the robot in the traffic environment and its social acceptance. A real-life experimental test case, expert interviews, and a survey are used to refine and validate the framework.Results: The real-life test case showed for the basic variant a sufficient level both on performance and social acceptance. All other variants such as pillars, road narrowing, and bends did not lead to sufficient performance or social acceptance levels.Discussion: The main outcome of this research is an assessment framework which allows to quantitatively assess traffic performance and social acceptance of sidewalk automated delivery robots. Suggestions for future work include further detailing and elaboration of the approach, scaling up experiments, and researching the possible influence of social acceptance on traffic performance. Subject delivery robotstraffic environmentdeloperational design domainsocial acceptancedelivery robots, traffic environment, operatperformance-based designCity Logistics To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:bfdefc95-08f8-4bfe-9d14-c9ba50f509c4 DOI https://doi.org/10.3389/ffutr.2023.1102302 ISSN 2673-5210 Source Frontiers in Future Transportation, 4, 1-12 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2023 E.M. Arntz, Ron van Duin, A.J. van Binsbergen, Lorant Tavasszy, T. Klein Files PDF ffutr_04_1102302.pdf 2.35 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:bfdefc95-08f8-4bfe-9d14-c9ba50f509c4/datastream/OBJ/view