At the first of December the launch of Robot Rosie (Robot On-Site Erasmus) took place. Robot Rosie is a pilot of 6 months with a self driving robot at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. SMART and SHARED Cities minor students, the minor of the Centre for BOLD Cities, will contribute to this project by doing research.
Robot Rosie will deliver groceries at campus Woudestein to employees, students and residents at the campus. The pilot is aimed at exploring the acceptance and acceptability by campus users as well as applications and potential business models for different stakeholders of the use of such robots in the public environment.
Our students will get the opportunity to study the interaction between human and robot from nearby. We find it valuable to further examine smart delivery in relation to innovation and sustainability.’
- Prof. dr. Liesbet van Zoonen, scientific director at the Leiden-delft-Erasmus Centre for BOLD Cities.
In the SMART and SHARED Cities minor, a group of students will examine the behavior of people in relation to the delivery robot on campus and find answers to questions such as; How will people react to a delivery robot? What is needed for this robot to function well? How can we implement technology like this in public spaces?
‘Our students will get the opportunity to study the interaction between human and robot from nearby. We find it valuable to further examine smart delivery in relation to innovation and sustainability.’ says Prof. dr. Liesbet van Zoonen, scientific director at the Leiden-delft-Erasmus Centre for BOLD Cities.
The students working on the minor project are from various educational backgrounds (International Business Administration, Technology, Policy and Management, Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology and Computer Science and Engineering) at Leiden University, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Delft University for Technology.
It is very intersting to work with students with different backgrounds and disciplines. Because we approach problems and research in different ways and have varying knowledge, we complement each other's work. This is very useful in adressing the different sides of a problem.
- student Sanne van Herwijnen
This project is a collaboration of Future Mobility Network, DAM, SPAR University, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Gemeente Rotterdam and Metropool regio Rotterdam Den Haag. The robot itself is powered by Cartken, a technology company specialized in self-driving vehicles, AI-powered robotics and delivery operations.
