Scooter-maker Piaggio has launched a robot that will cart your belongings around for you.
The Gita, pronounced jee-ta, has been made by Fast Forward, an offshoot of Piaggio.
It features a compartment to load your bag or other items into, which sits between large wheels to move the ‘bot along. As long as your belongings weigh less than 18kg,it shouldn’t have any issue, although if you normally exceed that weight limit, Fast Forward is working on a bigger brother that will be able to take on a massive 90kg, although the target market for that robot is delivery drivers.
Gita’s 22-inch chassis is equipped with plenty of cameras to help it navigate around as it rolls along beside you, avoiding obstacles or other items that may get in its way.
The Gita and the Kilo don’t use the more conventional method of GPS to navigate their way around though. The operator can either wear a special belt that connects to the robot wireless or in future, it will use autonomous technology to find its ways to its destination, mapping a route to follow on advance. In this mode, the robots will unlock when they reach their destination.
This secondary controller is a little way off yet though and Fast Forward thinks it needs to test the robots for another four to six months before they’ll actually be useful.
However, a lot is planned for this rolling robot, with the company behind it also planning to group them together in a fleet so they can work together.
Fast Forward hasn’t revealed how much Gita or Kilo will cost, neither has it hinted on a launch date, although there still seems to be a lot of work required before they’re ready for the mainstream.
