Los Angeles, USA, on December 3, local time, No.9 Robotics Co., Ltd., the robot brand of No.9 Company, announced the cooperation with the American robot distribution company Coco. The latter will use the robot platform provided by No.9 Robot to build 1,000 semi-automatic and remotely controlled machines. The intelligent delivery robot is used to expand its own delivery business. The cooperation has won the attention and reports of many overseas heavyweight media.

According to a report by the well-known American technology media TechCrunch, these robots named Coco One will be put into use in Los Angeles and two other American cities in the first quarter of next year. Previously, Coco’s distribution business all relied on its 100 first-generation products, Coco 0. This cooperation with the No. 9 robot will greatly expand their robot team and help them reduce operating costs and broaden their business scenarios. Sahir Sharma, Coco’s senior vice president of vehicles, said that Coco has placed an additional order for another 1,200 robots, which are expected to be put into use in May or June 2022.

No.9 Robot is a robot brand of No.9 Company. It uses its own advantages in smart mobility to focus on the R&D, design, manufacturing and commercial implementation of commercial service robots and robotic mobile platforms. In fact, as early as 2003, Segway, a subsidiary of No.9 Company, released RMP (Segway Motion Platform) to provide partners and downstream operators with flexible, customized, and modular intelligent distribution solutions. In 2016, a dedicated robotics division was established, and in the same year, the world’s first companion robot, Loomo, was launched. He Dong, vice president of Global BD of No. 9 Company, said: “If Loomo’s launch is more of an exploration and experimentation, then this cooperation with Coco is the first time that No. 9 Robot has applied its robotic motion platform on a large scale. In the distribution business, it marks the long-term strategic shift of No.9 Company to the robot distribution market”.

The Coco One robot built on the Segway motion platform has a built-in camera, GPS and sensing device, which can be remotely controlled and realize basic automatic driving functions. For example, they can maintain autonomous driving in a straight line, and will automatically stop when encountering obstacles. This allows background operators to greatly save time and energy when operating multiple robots, and improve operational efficiency and safety. At the same time, the information collected through the cloud background can optimize the best delivery route, thereby further reducing operating costs.

Intelligent robots are considered to be the most efficient way to achieve the first and last mile delivery. Especially during the peak dining period in crowded urban areas, robot delivery has abundant and irreplaceable application scenarios. He Dong further introduced: “From the market environment, the shortage of manpower caused by the epidemic makes robot services more acceptable; from the perspective of the product, the more concise design of the No. 9 robot means more reliable operation and less The high accident rate and lower initial investment, low speed driving, and lighter weight also make these robots more harmless to pedestrians and more likely to be welcomed by cities.”

Remotely controlled robots can achieve contactless delivery and convenient and fast end-to-end services, and have a broad market space in the post-epidemic era. According to the latest data research, the global market for automated delivery robots will reach 236 million U.S. dollars (approximately 1.5 billion yuan) in 2027, and technology companies that deploy robot delivery businesses have repeatedly been favored by capital institutions. In August of this year, Coco has just completed a US$36 million (about 230 million yuan) A round of financing, and part of the funds has also been invested in the cooperation with the No. 9 robot.

It is reported that this cooperation is just the beginning for both parties. In the future, Robot No. 9 will continue to use its advantages on the product side to complement Coco as an operator. It is similar to the shared short-traffic market model. Robot No. 9 will provide For vehicles and hardware equipment, Coco conducts front-end operations and services. It is worth mentioning that, based on the leading position and rich experience of Nine Company in the field of shared electric scooters, it has also brought technical and supply chain support to this cooperation. He Dong said: “We attach great importance to the cooperation with Coco, and the two sides are also well aware of each other’s advantages. Robot No. 9 hopes to use continuously innovative products and a complete supply chain system to provide downstream operators with hardware guarantees and promote robots. The continuous development of the distribution market is the long-term strategy of Robot 9 in the future.”

In addition to launching the Segway sports platform overseas, the No. 9 robot also has a forward-looking layout in China. Based on the capabilities of the Segway motion platform, the No. 9 sugar cube delivery robot is built by combining No. 9 robot’s leading AI algorithm, visual recognition, multi-machine scheduling and other core technologies. It is designed to meet different scenarios such as office buildings, shopping malls, and hospitals. The indoor distribution robot built for intensive distribution needs can provide people with smarter, safer, efficient and reliable indoor distribution services. At present, the No. 9 sugar cube delivery robot has cooperated with mainstream first-line brand hotels such as Accord Hotel Group, Qingzhu Hotel Group, Jinke Group, Ramada Hotel Group, Marriott, Hilton, etc., and the cumulative delivery volume exceeds 220,000. There are nearly 230,000 households.

Through the multi-line layout of domestic, foreign, hotel and outdoor distribution, the No. 9 robot has shown a clear development trend. In the future, it will continue to use technology and product innovation to broaden channels and application scenarios to meet more user needs and promote Innovation and development of robot distribution.

Link to this article：The first large-scale landing overseas, the No. 9 robot cooperated with a US company to build 2,200 delivery robots