Autonomous delivery robots are a promising alternative for last-mile delivery. To realise successful implementation of delivery robots in the public space, it is important to study the interaction between robot and environment. The traffic environment includes the physical infrastructure, traffic conditions and the people using the environment. This research proposes an assessment method that can be applied to determine the ‘roboreadiness’ of a traffic environment. This expresses whether the environment is ready for delivery robots to drive there. The performance of new transport concepts and the acceptance of innovations in the transport system are studied in a literature review, leading to the important factors. This is translated into a conceptual model which is the basis for the development of the method. To be able to assess the factors, suitable sub-methods are chosen and elaborated. To study the performance of the robot in its traffic environment a test-case can be performed and to examine the social acceptance a survey can be conducted. Analysing the resulting data leads to the level of roboreadiness. As a final step in the development of the method, a validation is carried out. While demonstrating the assessment method, it follows that the method is suitable for determining the level of performance, social acceptance and consequently the roboreadiness. In addition, first insights regarding the performance and social acceptance of the delivery robot at the campus of the Erasmus University Rotterdam are presented. The proposed assessment method can be used to collect data that can be useful for future projects. Although the method is valid, suggestions for improvements are made for further research.

Testing Sidewalk Autonomous Delivery Robot (SADR) performance in real world conditions is important to prove whether the innovation is ready for large-scale adoption. Currently, testing SADRs in public is not allowed in the Netherlands, because little is known about the actual risks associated with delivery robots, and the risks are currently difficult to assess because the robots are continuously evolving. Since the adoption of SADRs can reduce the negative effects of last mile logistics, in this article a theoretical dynamic assessment framework for the safe and sustainable performance of delivery robots is proposed. It is explored that there exist different degrees of relative difficulty within the Operational Design Domain of SADRs and a set of adapted metrics to objectively and completely quantify and qualify factors that cause this relative difficulty is drawn up. On this basis, the dynamic assessment framework has been developed. Both the theory of relative Operational Design Domain Difficulty and the proposed dynamic assessment framework have been validated with experts. Delivery robots can be safely tested in public, because based on the dynamic assessment framework and a living lab approach, associated risks can be constantly minimised.