How drones, self-driving robots could help with food insecurity in Arlington
The city of Arlington and its partners showed electric and autonomous air and ground vehicles at Julia Burgen Park playground at 1009 Ruby St. They will be used to test the delivery of about 150 boxes of nonperishable food to Arlington households this week.
The event showcased adjustments for the Multimodal Delivery pilot program, a two-year project funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to test and evaluate the use of no-emission or low-emission uncrewed aircraft and ground robots to deliver food to individuals who are underserved.
New data released by Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap, shows Texas surpassed California as the most food insecure state in the country with 5.4 million people who are food insecure. Tarrant County has the 12th largest food insecure population in the country with 337,350 people experiencing food insecurity, the data shows.
The increase in population in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and inflation have hurt working class families, as has inaccessibility in rural communities, said Stephen Raeside, chief external affairs officer of Tarrant Area Food Bank. The Tarrant Area Food Bank serves 13 counties, which take in 10,000 square miles, and delivers 1.5 million meals a week with only 140 employees, creating a logistical challenge, Raeside said.
'We have to be very efficient, adaptable, nimble, and we think delivery through autonomous vehicles could be part of that formula to distribute even more food,' Raeside said.
The project started in October 2023 with a $780,000 grant, with the first year used for planning and preparation. The first demonstration was held in September 2024, and information gained from that was used to revise and expand on the demonstration held Wednesday morning.
The city and its partners will use the information learned from this week's demonstration to analyze and report on the lessons they learned later this year. There is no immediate plan to fully launch the project in the future.
'One of our goals at the city is that, by testing these types of things and doing these demonstrations, we give people the opportunity to learn about how the technology works, hopefully feel more comfortable with it, and then, as it grows and expands, there's more opportunities for everyone,' said Ann Foss, transportation planning and programming manager for the city of Arlington.
Other partners, including the North Central Texas Council of Governments, helped with community engagement and outreach and more technical aspects, such as energy and cost analysis. UT Arlington has helped with community engagement and outreach, and faculty and students from the engineering department have helped with the technical aspects of the project.
Airspace Link is a software and management company that helped create a system for communication and tracking. Other partnerships include the drone delivery company Aerialoop, which provides the aircraft, and Mozee, a Dallas-based autonomous vehicle manufacturer, which provides the ground robot.
Shawn Taikratoke, CEO of Mozee, said mobility equals freedom, and the company wanted to help people dealing with food insecurity because of transportation issues.
'Roughly half of America has no access to mass transit, as of right now, and so being able to bridge that gap is a big deal for us,' Taikratoke said.
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