Avride, the robotics company that spun out of Russian search giant Yandex, has a new sidewalk delivery robot to show off.
The company currently has plans to operate a fleet of six-wheeled delivery robots in Austin, Texas, delivering Uber Eats orders to customers, as well as South Korea. Now Avride’s next generation model is shedding a couple of wheels — and showing big gains in efficiency.
The new robot only has four wheels, which Avride says is more energy efficient than its six-wheeled model. The six-wheeled versions were simple to build, and could turn confidently on a variety of surfaces. But they also created a lot of friction, which ate up a lot of energy from the robot’s internal battery.
The new four-wheeled designs are much…