WHILL and 5D Robotics Collaborate for Autonomous Personal Mobility Development
WHILL Inc. has announced its collaboration with 5D Robotics Inc. to help accelerate WHILL’s development of autonomous personal mobility technology for its flagship device, Model A.
“Fully autonomous personal mobility devices can bring our B2B [business-to-business] customers enormous benefits in terms of greater convenience, lower cost and improved safety for their mobility services,” says Satoshi Sugie, WHILL CEO and founder.
5D has fitted the Model A with engineered software behaviors to deliver precise navigation using its Ultrawideband sensors for reliable and safe autonomous use. The first public demonstration is scheduled to take place at the RoboUniverse Conference & Expo tomorrow in New York.
WHILL’s autonomous personal mobility project is currently preparing to engage with intelligent mobility markets, such as smart cities, hospitals, airports, campuses, resorts and the hospitality industry.
“5D’s commitment to autonomous vehicles is inspiring, deliberate and completely in line with our vision to make sidewalk transportation safer and more accessible,” says Sugie. “We are excited to be partnering with 5D and believe this is a groundbreaking and necessary step toward rapidly commercializing autonomous personal mobility technology.”
“The collaboration video we created for RoboUniverse 2016 in NYC will demonstrate the integration of 5D hardware and software to facilitate the autonomous behavior and precise navigation,” says David Bruemmer, 5D Robotics CEO and founder. “With a combination of UWB tags, lidar, and other sensors and 5D’s patented behaviors, the Model A can follow behind a person, animal or vehicle along a predefined path, a behavior 5D refers to as Virtual Rail”
WHILL has moved quickly to develop, test and distribute personal mobility devices in the U.S. and Japanese markets since its founding in 2013. The collaboration with 5D is WHILL’s latest step toward its goal of redefining the future of personal mobility, according to a company press release.
