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Sustainability Assessment of Automated Urban Delivery Systems

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A wide range of automated last mile and final 50 feet package and food delivery technologies and systems are under development and testing.  The energy and GHG emissions for package and product delivery by emerging automated technologies (e.g., vehicles and robots), however, are unknown. An integrated model using life cycle assessment will be created to compare and provide insight into the energy and emissions performance of alternative vehicle (electric, connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV)) and final 50 feet delivery system (robot, human) combinations across a range of delivery scenarios.

This project will develop tools/models to assess life cycle energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and other sustainability impacts for automated urban delivery systems (e.g., ground-based vehicles, drones, bipedal/wheeled robots). Compare and contrast with conventional systems.

Sponsor(s)
Ford Motor Company
Research Areas
Mobility Systems
Transportation