During TechCamp@POLIMI 2023, students from the Intelligent and Autonomous Vehicles course had the opportunity to witness YAPE’s operational capabilities.

YAPE, which stands for “Your Autonomous Pony Express”, is a two-wheeled, self-stabilizing droid designed to navigate autonomously in environments with limited space to maneuver.

Thanks to its set of sensors and actuators, it is able to perceive the surrounding environment and react to the uncertainties and unpredictable obstacles typical of the urban environment.

Yape found many applications among which:

In 8 November 2022, YAPE began a pilot program for real-world deliveries at the Ispra site of the European Commission Joint Research Centre. Since 2021 Yape participates to the JRC Living Lab for Future Mobility Solutions, an open framework developed by the JRC to allow European innovators in the mobility field to use the JRC Ispra site to test their solutions with the active engagement of the 2000+ people that every day enter the site.

YAPE is also at the base of BUDD-e which involves a multidisciplinary research team (with expertises, e.g., in ICT, Robotics, and Architectural Design) to pursue a twofold objective:

• design and realize a first prototype of the innovative autonomous robotic guide BUDD-e for blind and visually impaired persons, endowed with an innovative human-robot interface;
• design accessible and inclusive public places and indoor environments where BUDD-e can take the role of a guide for BVI persons and permit the fruition of the offered services.

The application scenarios include public spaces where the users will be able to reserve BUDD-e and use as an autonomous guide, e.g., hospitals, sport centers, shopping centers, parks, cultural centers.