BARNSLEY, England - The British parcel company Evri has begun trialing a two-legged autonomous delivery robot on residential streets in Barnsley, a test it describes as the first of its kind in Europe, the company said on Sept. 28.
The robot, named Iris, was built by Refined Robotics, a company that started in Tokyo, where the machine was first trialed, the BBC reported. It stands about 1.2 meters tall and was designed for outdoor last-mile deliveries. Evri said it can carry parcels weighing up to 15 kilograms, travel at up to 6 kilometers an hour, climb stairs, cross uneven ground and get in and out of delivery vans.
The robot can run autonomously or be monitored remotely and can make both attended and unattended deliveries, according to Evri, which said it would study how the technology performs in residential areas and whether it can make operations more efficient.
Barnsley was picked because it is the UK's first government-backed Tech Town, a designation under which artificial intelligence will be used in public services, schools, businesses and the National Health Service, the BBC reported. Evri also runs what it calls Europe's biggest dedicated parcel delivery hub in the town.
Nick Hafner, chief executive of Refined Robotics, said the robot was given legs, rather than the wheeled-box design used by most delivery robots, so it could step around obstacles. "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 told the BBC. He said the robot could deliver when customers were out or at hours a human courier could not, such as the middle of the night, and that 96.2 percent of participants in the Tokyo trial "really enjoyed the robot."
Evri presented the trial as support for its couriers rather than a substitute. "Our couriers remain at the heart of our business," said Marcus Hunter, Evri Group's chief technology officer. Adrian Berry, an innovation delivery manager at Evri, told the BBC the robot was a complementary service rather than one that would replace people any time soon.
Evri, which merged with DHL eCommerce UK in 2025, says the group delivers more than one billion parcels a year. The company did not say how long the Barnsley trial will last or how many robots it will use.
The test comes as British delivery platforms move further into automation. Just Eat already uses Starship Technologies robots in Barnsley, Milton Keynes and Sunderland, according to Robot24, and Deliveroo's chief executive told The Times this weekend that the company would begin robot deliveries in five areas, starting in London.
