The Yandex Rover has been deployed into the real-world for the first time, doing work for the Skolkovo administration in Moscow.
The little robot courier first started transporting small packages and document bundles for Yandex in November 2019 at the company headquarters on Leo Tolstoy Street, and now the little bot is doing the same work for Skolkovo.
Skolkovo employees set tasks for the robot from their smartphones.
For example, a Rover may be instructed to take documents from one office to another or deliver a parcel to a post office. The cargo is placed in the cargo compartment, and after that, the robot goes on the road. Employees are able to monitor the Rover’s status via a live-map.
Rover uses sidewalks as opposed to roads and goes at the pace of the average pedestrian. This little courier service is being deployed by Skolkovo to aid transportation between their multiple offices, some of which are several kilometers apart.
When the Rover arrives at its destination, the recipient can only go to the robot, open the compartment lock from the phone and receive the package.
Yandex Rover Use Cases
Yandex.Rover will be useful in any area where they deal with small loads.
For example, the robot can take orders from various points of delivery, deliver pizza, transport goods in a warehouse or servers in a data center. In the future, Yandex, together with the Skolkovo team, plans to entrust the robot with more demanding tasks.
You can read more about Rover’s testing here.
