Two-legged delivery robot unveiled in Tech Town

A two-legged delivery robot has taken to the streets of Barnsley for a "European-first" trial.

Barnsley was chosen to host Iris as part of its designation as the UK's first Tech Town, which will see AI utilised in public services, schools, businesses and the NHS.

Iris was developed by Japanese company Refined Robotics, which is running the trial in collaboration with parcel delivery group Evri.

Refined Robotics founder Nick Hafner said: "Barnsley is really trying to show how innovative the city can be, and be a testing ground for these types of new technologies."

Iris stands at about 4ft (1.2m) and can carry parcels weighing about 20kg.

The robot can travel at speeds of up to 3.7mph (6km/h), and is likely to focus on delivering fashion parcels.

Hafner said Iris was developed with legs to have more flexibility - as opposed to the wheeled box designs seen in parts of Sheffield in March of this year.

The legs would allow Iris to avoid obstacles in the street - and the robot could even climb stairs, said Hafner.

"There's always something not perfect about the real world, there's going to be a branch from a tree trunk or a wheelie bin or something," he said.

Hafner said the robot would be able to deliver when someone was out, and at times that suited the customer, such as in the middle of the night, that were not possible with a human-based delivery.

The robotics company started in Tokyo, where the robot was trialled initially.

Hafner said: "96.2% of the participants really enjoyed the robot.

"They think it's cute, and they said it didn't feel as machine-like as some of the other robots that they've seen."

Adrian Berry, innovation delivery manager for Evri, said Barnsley was very open to supporting tech businesses and "growing the economy that way".

He said this was a complementary service rather than one that would replace people any time soon.

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