Innovative road maintenance tool to be trialled

Eurovia UK and Academy of Robotics are entering into a partnership to trial the use of Academy of Robotics' Kar-go AI technology for road maintenance. The partnership will see Eurovia UK testing the use of Kar-go technology to automate the delivery of small plant equipment, tools, materials and other components to and from a highway work site as well as the potential use of data collected by Kar-go as it travels, to determine the condition of roads.
Connected Construction / November 14, 2019

The partnership will also see Eurovia UK helping Academy of Robotics to scale their training of autonomous vehicles. This will be enabled by accessing digital camera data gathered by Eurovia’s fleet in the UK, which covers over 50,000km of UK roads.


Meanwhile the Academy of Robotics has demonstrated an electric driverless delivery vehicle at the CAV Scotland show which it says reduces the last mile delivery costs by up to 90%.

Academy of Robotics says Kar-go uses artificial intelligence to deliver small parcels in conjunction with an app at 1.2p per mile. The vehicle’s operating system allows it to travel on unmarked country roads and navigate safely without access to GPS, the company adds.

Recipients can call for their package to be delivered to their location on a street, by a restaurant or outside their office while also tracking Kar-go’s progress.

Kar-go features a patented management system including storage compartments for different orders. Customers can unlock the vehicle’s hatch after presenting a token on their mobile phone. The system is expected to release the specific item only, preventing further access to other parcels. As the vehicle moves on, the system re-orders its packages ready for the next delivery.

It was developed in collaboration with the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and can travel at around 60mph. It can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The first working model of Kar-go was manufactured in partnership with car manufacturer Pilgrim Motorsports. Academy has opened a further investment round to raise funds for the production and testing of these vehicles.

CAV Scotland is managed by Transport Network on behalf of Transport Scotland and runs alongside Traffex Scotland.

 

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