PRE2017 4 Groep5

Group Members

• Ahmed Ahres - Software Science - 0978238
• Quinten Maes - Psychology & Technology - 0955972
• Hugo Melchers - Mathematics & Software Science - 0994280
• Christel van den Nieuwenhuizen - Psychology & Technology - 0940672
• Frank de Veld - Physics & Mathematics - 1010914

Project Description

Subject

In order to make (business) travel more efficient, it would be useful to create a self-following suitcase for travelers, but this idea can also be used by example elderly when buying groceries or by other people who have to regularly transport objects. However, special attention has to be given to subjects like security, privacy, battery life and obstacle avoidance.

Users

In general the users for this kind of technology will be persons who regularly have to cover distances with baggage and either have trouble with that or would like to have their load relieved. This mostly covers business travelers, elderly or disabled travelers or elderly and disabled persons in general. The general area of use would thus be airports, train stations, bus stations, naval docks and urban areas. It is pretty important that these technologies are used in relatively smooth and flat terrain. In the case of personal suitcases, the self following suitcases would be bought particularly by the users. In the case of trolleys, the self following trolleys would be purchased by organisations like airports, nursery homes, supermarkets, retail stores and universities.

State of the Art

So far, a few companies have already tackled the case of self following suitcases. At several events such devices have been shown or demonstrated, but so far none have been sold to particulars yet. The companies currently working on a self following suitcase are:

• Olive robotics owned by IKAP Robotics from Iran (http://oliverobotics.com/)
• Travelmate robotics from the United States (https://travelmaterobotics.com/)
• ForwardX from China (https://www.forwardx.com/)
• Cowarobot owned by LeMoreLab from China (http://en.cowarobot.com/en/r1/robotics.htm)
• 90FUN owned by Shanghai Runmi Technology Co., Ltd. from China (https://www.90fun.us/puppy1)
• NUA Robotics from Israel (http://unbouncepages.com/nuarobotics/)

It is important to note that all of these companies, the parent companies included, have been founded in the previous 3 years. Two of these companies, Travelmate and Cowarobot, needed crowdfunding from the crowdfunding website indiegogo.com in order to be able to produce their suitcases, Travelmate even needed two (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/travelmate-a-fully-autonomous-suitcase-and-robot, https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/travelmate-a-fully-autonomous-suitcase-and-robot--2#/comments and https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cowarobot-r1-the-first-and-only-robotic-suitcase). Both companies had delivery dates around end 2016 / begin 2017, but both experienced production delays and have not yet delivered the suitcases to their customers. Furtheremore, Travelmate has doubled to tripled their prices compared to their original plan (€400 to €600), which was comparable to the price of the one from Cowarobot. Nevertheless, both companies received an overwhelming amount of support from their backers; 400% of the necessary funds was received by Cowarobot and 1600% of the necessary funds were received by Travelmate. The other four companies do not give specifications on either the release date or the price, only NUA Robotics and ForwardX hope to release it at the end of this year.

Also interesting is that five of these six companies claim to have made the first self following suitcase; ForwardX is not claiming this. Additionally, NUA Robotics is a very small company with only 2-10 employees and their site is hosted by the third party company Unbounce; the company does not look very professional. To summarize; there are several companies currently working on the idea of an self following suitcase and they are at varying stages of releasing the technology in form of a product but it seems most of the companies have run into some issues and none are delivering yet. However, since the companies are already promoting their idea a lot, there are also numerous responses from potential buyers, both negative and positive. This is a really important source of feedback, since this technology is largely based on the users and their preferences. The most important positive remarks are:

• It is an innovative idea
• It is efficient
• It can help disable people

The most important negative remarks or fears are:

• Security and crime
• Security and hacking
• Weight, since the allowed weight for hand luggage is limited
• Size of the batteries, since the guidelines for batteries on aircraft are strict
• Potential terrorism
• Not useful enough for the target group. This can of course be avoided by searching for other applications, such as aiding elderly or disabled people and improving efficiency in work environments.

It is important that these subject will be adequately thought of in the design of such a suitcase.