Skype co-founders develop grocery delivery robot

Skype cofounders Ahti Heinla and Jaun Friis have developed, a small, autonomous robot that wheels down a sidewalk at about 4 mph. The robot built by their start up Starship Technologies is likely to find application in cost-efficient grocery delivery service of the future.

The robot would be piloted in several countries including the US and the UK in 2016, and would serve "to fundamentally improve local delivery of goods and groceries, making it almost free," Starship said in a statement.

The company aims to launch fleets of small robots, capable of delivering up to 20 pounds of groceries for $1.50 in under a half-hour.

Customers can select a convenient delivery time and can track the robot's progress through a mobile app.

When the Starship robot arrives at the customer's doorstep, the app user is the only person who can unlock the machine's cargo and get the groceries.

Thanks to the navigation software with obstacle avoidance feature, the robot can make its way without causing any disturbance to traffic and pedestrians, but a human operator can intervene remotely to guarantee a safe delivery.

"Our vision revolves around three zeroes -- zero cost, zero waiting time, and zero environmental impact," Ahti Heinla, CEO, Starship Technologies, said in the statement. "We want to do to local deliveries what Skype did to telecommunications."

The robots can deliver packages from a local hub or stores in 5 to 30 minutes.

Starship can travel at around four miles per hour and is capable of carrying up to 20 pounds, or what according to the startup was the equivalent of two grocery bags.

The company hopes to bring down the cost of  deliveries made by Starships to under $1.

The Starship robot incorporates GPS, cameras and other sensors to navigate to users' home and then using the same sensors returns to its hub on completion of delivery.