Urban Mole: Delivery Via Underground Robots
By Jared Newman
Of all the jobs that could be replaced by robots, package delivery seems like an unlikely candidate. And yet, the Urban Mole concept from Philipp Hermes uses shoebox-sized robots to ferry parcels underground. These bots would crawl through a city’s existing sewer system, along the cielings of its pipes, delivering hopefully-not-stinky packages to designated points where the customer can retrieve them. Navigation is handled through RFID chips and other technology, and the whole thing works like a road system, with robots moving from major arteries to narrower, less-trafficked passages. The design caming in second in a contest by VisionWorks to innovate transportation solution, but someow a building that grows food on its walls took the top prize. Revenge will come once the robots become self-aware. [Wired via SlipperyBrick]
