On June 24, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry established a public-private council to proceed with studies on the implementation of automatic traveling robots in society.
Increased use of mail-order sites
While the number of packages handled by using online shops (mail order sites and EC sites) is increasing year by year, the logistics industry continues to face a serious labor shortage.
As a means to solve the labor shortage, expectations are rising for autonomous driving robots, which have been
undergoing demonstration experiments in other countries in recent years, but issues such as responsibility in the event of an accident during operation and autonomous driving robots There was a problem in putting it into practical use because the maintenance to run the action was not prepared.
Public-private council established
For the use of automatic delivery robots with private companies, we will start a demonstration test on public roads within this year, consider legislation from next year onward, and aim to solve the labor shortage that is becoming more serious in the transportation industry.
Transport companies, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Yamato Transport, etc. participated in the implementation of autonomous driving robots as soon as possible, and discussed the responsibility in the event of an accident and safety issues.
↓ Demonstration of automatic tracking of “EffiBOT” held at Mitsubishi Estate
Robot classification
The council divides automatic delivery robots into two categories and assumes automatic delivery from the collection point to the recipient.
(1) Automatic tracking type A type
equipped with a camera, sensor, etc. that recognizes and tracks the user.
(2) Drive to the destination using a camera, satellite positioning system (GPS), or radar sensor with the same mechanism as an autonomous driving vehicle.
Various other utilization methods of self-driving robots are being studied.
Realization of driving on public roads, demonstration experiments. This includes accelerating legislation, but I look forward to future results.