AI Changes Takeout And Logistics? Three Or Five Years For Unmanned Distribution

After visiting the exhibition hall for two days, we found that hard technology and automobile enterprises occupied almost half of the country. This is the deepest impression left by the 2021 World Conference on artificial intelligence for journalists of the 21st century economic report. It also shows that the application scene of artificial intelligence has gone from the blueprint on paper to the reality.

Whether it's autonomous driving, unmanned distribution or smart city, AI is accelerating its penetration. On July 8, meituan released its self-developed UAV and other unmanned distribution products at the world artificial intelligence conference, and hopes to build a low altitude logistics network with 3 km and 15 min delivery in the future.

According to Wang Puzhong, senior vice president of meituan, urban low altitude flight has begun to shift from civilian shooting to large-scale industrial use, which is an important opportunity for scientific and technological innovation in the next ten or twenty years“ The combination of UAV and life service scenarios will be the best way to build urban low altitude logistics network. "

In fact, in the field of unmanned distribution, in addition to UAVs, logistics robots, self driving trucks and other black technologies all appeared in this conference one by one. In the future, the logistics network based on intelligent dispatching system, UAV, automatic driving and other technologies, as well as the terminal distribution mode with multiple human-computer cooperation, is expected to form an overall solution for unmanned distribution.

However, for ordinary users, it may take another three or five years to truly perceive this change from the aspect of somatosensory perception.

Building low altitude infrastructure

In the future, you may be able to experience such a scene: order a takeout through a mobile phone, the rider will pick up the meal and put it on a UAV, and then deliver it to the takeaway cabinet near you. You only need to scan the code to pick up the meal. The whole process takes only 15 minutes.

Such a picture was drawn by meituan at this year's world artificial intelligence conference through an unmanned distribution aircraft with six blades. From the first appearance of unmanned distribution vehicle in the first conference to the high attention of UAV this year, artificial intelligence has been given a new layer of expectation for the transformation of future takeout industry.

Wang Puzhong said that not long ago, in cities affected by the outbreak of new crown pneumonia, the UAV independently developed by meituan became a participant in the anti epidemic front line, building a "door-to-door" material transportation "air passage" and completing the task of distributing drugs and other emergency materials to residents in the isolation zone.

Meituan started the exploration of UAV distribution service as early as 2017. As of June 2021, meituan has independently developed fp400 series UAVs for urban terminal distribution scenarios, and has completed more than 200000 flight tests at test sites in Beijing and Shenzhen.

At present, the urban low altitude logistics network has been rudimentary, which is composed of three parts: UAV distribution, automatic airport and intelligent dispatching management system meeting the requirements of regulatory authorities“ On the way to local life and service, meituan has to make great investment in science and technology when it comes to the time when it needs to go up a new level. " According to Mao Yinian, head of meituan UAV business, meituan UAV service scene also needs to build a sound low altitude infrastructure, that is, combining the digital cloud system and physical infrastructure of the city.

It is worth noting that the UAV distribution terminal is an important part of the physical infrastructure. Previously, meituan has been laying out intelligent dining cabinets in communities to provide ground receiving devices for apartments, buildings and other scenes. Mao Yinian also mentioned that in the future, he will cooperate with Vanke to jointly transform the building facilities, and users are expected to open kitchen lockers at home to pick up goods.

In the face of more and more vigorous consumer demand in the market, riders and UAVs will form a collaborative complementary relationship to jointly build a ground air integrated city terminal distribution network. Mao further explained that "UAVs and riders have a collaborative relationship, which is a supplement to the existing manpower. At present, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) need meal takers to place their lunch boxes. In the future, riders may be operation and maintenance workers, workers of power stations, or professionals of UAVs. Many roles will change in the future, but energy efficiency will certainly be improved. "

It will take five to ten years for large-scale application

At the same time, not only is the UAV distribution service, automatic driving track is also in full swing.

At the conference, the domestic automatic driving enterprise Xiaoma Zhixing also brought the latest progress in automatic driving. Robotaxi will officially land in Shanghai, and Shanghai will become the fourth city after Guangzhou, California and Beijing. In terms of self driving trucks, the self driving trucks have been tested for more than 200 days, transporting 13650 tons of goods and operating mileage of 37466 kilometers.

Coincidentally, in the narrow space of the manufacturing factory, with the help of automatic driving to solve the problem of transportation capacity, Youbi technology is also used. Among them, AMR logistics robot can be widely used in industrial manufacturing, logistics warehousing, 3C and other human-computer mixed scenes, complex scenes, and high customization requirements. It can effectively deal with the complex site environment and the route that may change at any time to ensure the safety of people, goods and equipment in complex scenes.

In different scenarios, unmanned distribution is developing by leaps and bounds, but the road of development is not smooth, and unmanned distribution technology still faces many difficulties“ At present, it seems that the unmanned distribution car can be on the road quickly, and the risk factor of accident is a little lower. However, it is not as simple as expected to be really mature. " Zhang Ning, vice president of Xiaoma Zhixing and head of Beijing R & D center, said in an interview with 21st century economic reporter that the ability of technology generalization is a difficulty. For the unmanned distribution car, the commercial value of opening one or two distribution lines may be relatively limited, but for truck logistics, if the Beijing Guangzhou and Beijing Shanghai lines can be connected, the value of such lines will be incalculable.

On the other hand, the advance of automatic driving technology also brings about the lag of social cognition, social acceptance and laws and regulations“ There is always a certain rule in the birth of things. It is difficult for us to ask policies to go faster than technology. " Zhang Ning further explained that "if the policy lags behind the technology for half a year to a year, it will not greatly hinder the development of technology. On the contrary, if some policies, regulations and regulations can be followed up within half a year to a year, the industry will develop very well. "

Similarly, as the application of new technology in life scene, there are still blank areas in the field of commercial UAV in terms of policies and regulations. According to Mao Yinian, at present, China has made great efforts to reform and open low altitude airspace. Meituan is also working with the government to promote the establishment and implementation of industry standards, and to implement policies in specific methods. And the application of UAV distribution scale is also expected to land in the next 5-10 years.

It can be foreseen that in the near future, the logistics network based on intelligent dispatching system, UAV, automatic driving and other technologies, as well as the terminal distribution mode with multiple human-computer cooperation, is expected to form an overall solution for unmanned distribution. Wang Puzhong said that technological changes will play a more and more important role in future urban life services. Automation equipment combined with artificial intelligence technology and robot is playing an increasingly important role in some major public health events and emergency events, and has gradually become one of the important supplementary forces for human rescue and distribution“ Although this is still a medium and long-term matter, we are willing to invest in the future and continue to explore driverless technology and intelligent robot technology. "

(Han liming, an intern, also contributed to this paper.)