Author: Graham Stanley / Oxfordshire County Council
The future of automated, zero-emission last-mile delivery is beginning to take shape. Together with Oxford Brookes Autonomous Driving & Intelligent Transport Group, FEED Oxford have developed fully Remote Operation capabilities for FEED’s automated delivery e-cargo bike, allowing Pedal & Post to deliver edible plants and gardening equipment to the Edible Streets project via the Mobile Delivery Hub (MDH). In this demonstration, a human safety driver remained on standby to take over if needed, while several suitably trained attendees were able to experience the system from a different perspective by acting as Remote Operators, remotely driving the vehicle around the campus.
A remote driven e-cargo bike may seem like a strange idea but bear with us—it makes a lot of sense. An e-cargo bike is small enough and light enough to not contribute to congestion, park almost anywhere, and not use very much energy to move around. But it is big enough to store a decent amount of cargo. Finally, e-cargo bikes are mass produced, enabling lower costs for the perfect platform for an automated delivery solution.
Various configurations of the autonomous ready Mobile Delivery Hub are being tested by FEED to understand how this type of vehicle can operate in a cargo bike fleet. During the GREEN-LOG demonstration day at Oxford Brookes University, the Mobile Delivery Hub operated as a mobile delivery locker bank, allowing the parcel recipient to collect her delivery from the vehicle itself. Another configuration of the MDH is as a trunking vehicle, meeting human couriers just when they need to reload their bike with more parcels, rather than couriers needing to return all the way to their logistics hub when it is time to reload.
Getting permission (and insurance) to operate a large remote driven vehicle like this on Oxford’s streets can be tricky, but understanding the business case is essential for further investment. How can innovations like this be de-risked? By using the GREEN-LOG Augmented Intelligence Modelling Platform – a web application designed to enhance urban logistics through advanced demand prediction, improved route optimisation, and simulation-based decision-making – FEED is investigating how best to leverage the Mobile Delivery Hub within Pedal & Post’s fleet, both to quantify its benefits and to identify the most cost-effective solution.
