The City of Peachtree Corners, one of the nation’s first smart cities powered by real-world connected infrastructure and 5G, recently announced that Clevon, a global autonomous delivery leader, is joining the city’s Curiosity Lab ecosystem.
Clevon develops and manufactures autonomous robot carriers that make last-mile delivery more innovative, environmentally friendly and efficient. The company’s autonomous robot carriers (ARCs), powered by T-Mobile connectivity, are designed to collect orders at warehouses, retail stores, dark stores and micro fulfillment centers. They then deliver those goods to people and businesses around the city, according to a press release.
“It was only fitting to bring our second major operation here in the United States to one of the most advanced smart city environments in the world at Peachtree Corners,” said Sander Sebastian Agur, Clevon’s chief executive officer in a press release.
“A future-forward environment like this — complete with city-owned smart infrastructure, T-Mobile’s best-in-class network and opportunities to interact with connected vehicles and people and businesses — is invaluable to our continued efforts to optimize autonomous robot carrier operation, including how they will navigate through real-world situations,” Agur continued.
City officials agreed that Clevon’s partnership with Peachtree Corners is another fitting example of how Curiosity Lab is fulfilling its goal of growing technology, modernization and sustainability without costing local taxpayers anything.
Big step in delivery robot technology
Peachtree Corners Assistant City Manager Brandon Branham, who’s also chief technology officer, said that most people only know about the small delivery robots that are currently on the market. They drive on the sidewalk and only go about three or four miles an hour.
“This is a big change from that. It’s about the size of a golf cart. It is large and goes about 20 miles an hour. Its delivery range is further extended versus the traditional sidewalk robot,” he explained.
Clevon’s ARCs operate on U.S. public roadways and are purpose-built for delivering multiple shipments during a single trip, according to the company.
Although Peachtree Corners residents have seen many interesting inventions in recent years, this will be among that ones that aren’t just in the infrastructure or in the background. They will be interacting with the technology firsthand.
“What they’re testing here is integration into the network because they just made a partnership with T Mobile — how does the delivery service start to integrate with the network, the different areas of the network?” said Branham.
“Obviously, the Curiosity Labs environment can bring a lot for testing on the network because of the trees and the curves and the hills,” he added. “That’s why they brought it here to test versus some of the other T Mobile headquarters.”
The goal is to first do that testing and then to start to integrate the actual delivery side of it. “We’ll work with a couple of the local restaurants who will use the system to deliver food for event meetings and such,” said Branham.
How it works
The autonomous vehicle is loaded with the delivery at site. It can carry up to six individual deliveries inside its box. When it reaches the destination, the recipient enters a code and retrieves the package, similar to a post office box or Amazon locker.
Although the concept appears perfect for large operations, it’s scalable to small businesses as well. Clevon’s fully electric ARCs have customizable configurations to fulfill a multitude of business needs and offer an efficient and timely customer delivery experience.
The robots can reduce failed deliveries, carbon emissions, cost of delivery per customer and stolen packages. Clevon brings a secure, on-demand and extremely energy-efficient delivery service that has proven itself in all-weather conditions on multiple continents.
There’s currently one prototype in town, but Clevon has other locations with entire fleets. It may just be a matter of time before package delivery has a different face.
Clevon’s U.S. headquarters is set in Fort Worth, Tex., and it operates in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) region. Learn more at clevon.com, or through the company’s social media pages on Flickr, LinkedIn and YouTube.
