Interviewing stakeholders on the teleoperation of last-mile delivery robots

As e-commerce continues its rapid expansion, the challenges surrounding delivery are becoming more pronounced. The surge in traffic, environmental concerns, and heightened customer expectations have compounded the complexities of the delivery process. Customers now demand quicker deliveries within increasingly narrow timeframes, placing greater pressure on last-mile logistics, a pivotal yet costly aspect of the delivery chain. To address these challenges, fully autonomous last-mile delivery robots offer a promising and sustainable solution for efficient deliveries to their final destinations. Nevertheless, despite their advanced autonomous capabilities, it is widely acknowledged that, at least in the foreseeable future, autonomous robots operating in urban environments will frequently encounter situations beyond their capabilities. Factors such as road obstructions, adverse weather conditions, congested intersections, or human interactions may necessitate the intervention of a remote human operator. This work seeks to explore the specifications and design of a teleoperation interface tailored for remote human operators, enabling them to efficiently manage a multitude of delivery robots simultaneously.