Last Mile Delivery with Autonomous Shuttles: ROS-based Integration of Smart Cargo Cages

With consistently increasing amounts of transported goods, autonomous cargo transport has gained increasing interest as a potential solution. In addition to reliable autonomous driving functions, Autonomous cargo transport requires a wide range of additional software and hardware components to ensure a safe and efficient transport of cargo as well as a pleasant user experience for the customers. This work presents a general concept for an autonomous and flexible cargo transport system, targeting point-to-point transports in the range of the typical last mile. The proposed concept provides flexibility for demand-responsive passenger transport as a mixed cargo-passenger transport solution. Furthermore, the proposed concept is realized through designing a removable cargo hold with electronic locks, and software modules such as a Booking App, a Scanner App, and a central backend. The implementation was developed, deployed in an autonomous shuttle, and extensively tested in a peri-urban quarter of the Test Area Autonomous Driving Baden-Württemberg.

I. INTRODUCTION

As a result of the increase in population and changes in shopping habits, cargo and goods transport not only from online warehouses but from local shops as well, have become increasingly popular and are expected to continue growing in the future. This development and increasing demand make cargo transport an important topic that will become even more relevant in the future [1]. In tandem, autonomous driving has made remarkable progress in recent years, such that autonomous vehicles are being tested in real applications by numerous public projects and companies in a broad range of environmental conditions [2].