Demonstration of “New Last-Mile Infrastructure in Mountainous-Rural Areas” in Kitahiroshima Town
Using various sensors, the autonomous mobile robot (AMR) “LOMBY” conducted a demonstration aimed at building efficient, automated, and labor-saving last-mile logistics infrastructure for both indoor and outdoor environments. This included automated mixed delivery of packages and fresh produce, and fully automated transportation between remote parcel lockers.
(*1) AMR: Autonomous Mobile Robot—also known as an autonomous delivery robot or autonomous transport robot.
ABOUT
| Date | October 25 (Mon) – October 29 (Fri), 2021 |
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| Schedule | Four trips per day (at 10:00, 11:00, 13:00, 14:00) |
| Route | From the courier entrance of Thanks Shopping Center to the front entrance of the town hall in Kitahiroshima Town, Yamagata District, Hiroshima Prefecture—approximately 300 m one-way round-trip |
BACKGROUND AND GOAL
As e-commerce continues to grow rapidly (*2) and package volume increases, Japan faces population decline and aging—especially in mountainous and rural areas where last-mile delivery challenges are becoming more visible social issues. Rural logistics are affected by a shrinking workforce and an increase in vacant homes, leading to inefficiencies, higher delivery costs, and reduced service quality including canceled redeliveries.
We proposed a last-mile solution that combines LOMBY’s sensor-driven autonomous delivery with existing systems. The field test focused on fully automated parcel locker-to-locker delivery and automatic mixed loading of e-commerce and fresh groceries. We also explored a revenue model that combines logistics convenience with AMR-based shopping support in rural mountain communities.
(*2) Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, E-commerce Market Survey
https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2021/07/20210730010/20210730010.html
FLOW
| STEP 1 | Customer places an order online. |
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| STEP 2 | Order arrives at the store station. |
| STEP 3 | Store staff add in-store items to the station. |
| STEP 4 | LOMBY automatically mixes and navigates autonomously. |
| STEP 5 | LOMBY delivers to the designated location. |
| STEP 6 | Customer picks up all items together. |
Supported by a tripartite agreement, the demonstration took place in front ofKitahiroshima TownHalland near「Thanks Shopping Center, both operated byComs Co., Ltd.
SUMMARY
| Participants | Operation monitors: 18 Kitahiroshima town employees Survey respondents: 400 town residents, 55 non-residents, 1 local delivery company, Coms Co. staff |
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| Period / Schedule | October 25 (Mon) – 29 (Fri), hourly runs at 10:00, 11:00, 13:00, 14:00 |
| Area | Kitahiroshima Town Hall, town development center, and Thanks Shopping Center |
| Demonstration Details | Customers purchase daily necessities online and simultaneously buy fresh items from Fresta supermarket inside Thanks. Both are placed into a parcel locker. LOMBY autonomously retrieves mixed items and—using both autonomous and remote operation—delivers them to a parcel locker at Kitahiroshima Town Hall. |
| Results | Travel: 0.6 km round-trip × 16 = 9.6 km total at average speed of 2 km/h, mixing autonomous and remote control Automated Mixed Loading: Parcel locker accessed via tablet; non-face-to-face loading Non-Face-to-Face Delivery: LOMBY transferred items and completed delivery autonomously |
| Insights | Travel: Distance and speed met expectations; operations included remote control Mixed Loading: LOMBY successfully autonomously approached and transferred items to lockers—though facing alignment challenges Non-Face-to-Face Delivery: Demonstrated labor-saving and profit potential through fully contactless locker-to-locker delivery |
This project marks Yper’s first AMR initiative, selected for Hiroshima Prefecture’s AI/IoT platform “Hiroshima Sandbox” and the「D-EGGS PROGRAM」.Following the October trial, it received the “Samurai Incubate Award.”
The results are available as an on-demand video
https://youtu.be/FBzoZV7KxEM
LOMBY demonstration starts around 1:19:00
Award ceremony starts around 4:30:00
NEWS
| 2022.11.30 | Hiroshima Sandbox D-EGGS Samurai Incubate Award |
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| 2021.10.19 | Yper begins LOMBY AMR demonstration |