A robotic-delivery company piloting its autonomous robots in Boston found that, most of all, people like to automate their lunch delivery.
Peyk, a British robotics company with ties to the Boston robotics scene, launched a pilot of its autonomous delivery robots in Seaport last month.
Peyk, founded by Salman Moghimi in 2018, started as a delivery service and pivoted from human delivery to automated delivery in 2022 after the effects of Brexit made hiring difficult. The startup raised $2.3 million in seed funding in 2022 and began its foray into robotics.
The delivery startup began its residency with MassRobotics earlier this summer and has used that proximity to conduct its Boston pilot among local businesses in the Seaport district.
Because of ongoing construction in Seaport, the Peyk trial was limited to a smaller area, and transport was only conducted for Seaport-based staff. The Peyk team found out that people like to order lunch. In the 1,500 hours of real-world trials, the time the Peyk delivery robots were used the most was during the lunch hour, between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. The robots made deliveries within a five-mile radius, transporting goods between 150 shops and 15 buildings.
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The decision to launch the trial in Seaport was deliberate. According to Moghimi, much of the East Coast doesn’t have the roads or infrastructure to support Peyk. With its newer streets and lack of cobblestones, the Seaport provides stable roadways for Peyk to navigate.
Three of the 28-member Peyk team have been working at MassRobotics to make any necessary fixes to the robot during its deployment. Now that the summer trial has ended, Moghimi and his team are looking at another trial run after the winter, which may actually be a better time for the robots.
“In terms of operation, snow and cold weather is much easier than the challenges we have in this part of the world," said Moghimi, who remains based in the U.K. "At least over there, our external computing power is kept cool without any fans."
The West Coast has already implemented some delivery robots, but has run into problems such as theft and vandalism. The Peyk robots are subject to the same nocturnal terrors as their West Coast counterparts, and the Peyk team knows it.
According to Moghimi, that’s another reason the pilot was in the Seaport, where there are fewer chances for theft and vandalism.
“The robots are equipped with surveillance cameras, GPS, alarm system, the actual compartment is fully locked, so the parcel inside it cannot get stolen,” Moghimi said. “And even though these robots are autonomous, they're all being operated by a human being, who has to monitor the robots to ensure that everything goes smoothly.”
