Autonomous Actors – Non-Transportation uses of Autonomous Technology, Autonomous Door

You may think I’m going to talk about machines taking over the theater, but that’s not the direction I’m heading. Rather I see spectacular opportunities for innovations in technology, as well as other aspects of society. Some of these are enabled by the projected Autonomous Transportation System, but many will be independent. 

I believe this will be a major driver for the success of Sustainable Communities, both by providing desirable and efficient internal operation, and also as a source of employment and revenue as the members experience a collective innovative avalanche. 

I’ve already mentioned several potential applications for Autonomous Technology:

• Warehouse Automation: Optimized AutonomousVehicles
• Autonomous Toileting System: AutonomousToileting System
• Pipe-Free Water and Waste Processing: Pipe-Free Water and WasteProcessing
• Recycling Shower: Pipe-Free Water andWaste Processing
• Integrated Heating & Cooling System: Integrated Heating & Cooling System
• Integrated Lighting System: Free Lighting Energy:Integrated Lighting System
• Autonomous Monitoring & Adjusting Flatness of A-Way surfaces: Autonomous-Ways, or A-Ways, Part 2 – A Vision forthe Future

Other applications I want to describe at this point:

• Autonomous Door
• Autonomous Cleaning
• Autonomous Infrastructure Installation & Management
• Autonomous Food Screening
• Autonomous Recycling

I’ll start with the Autonomous Door because it is an essential part of security and privacy in conjunction with Autonomous Vehicles. In subsequent Posts I’ll cover the other innovations mentioned above, and don’t worry there are lots more for future Posts too.

The Autonomous Door is a combination of the hardware to admit or keep out delivered items and hold items or move them within the premises, as well as the comprehensive system of hardware, software, protocols and interactions to manage security of deliveries.

For example the Autonomous Door can be used to admit:

• a head of lettuce and move it to the refrigerator, or
• a dose of pills and move them to the recipient, along with a glass of water, or
• the dishes from breakfast, all clean, and store them in the appropriate cabinets
• a new shower head, and the plumber to install it, or
• your dog, or
• a new bed, combined with removing the old one.

I will present more information on the overall system when I talk about Safety, Security and Privacy. The Autonomous Door can also interact with a person to manage acceptance of non-prearranged items, including visitors, but I’ll cover that later.

Autonomous Delivery admits only pre-approved items: Autonomous Vehicles will not even accept something for delivery if it has not been pre-accepted for Autonomous Delivery.

To help understand how the Autonomous Door works with Autonomous Delivery, let’s follow a sample: suppose you have gone to the doctor with a muscle spasm in your back. 

1. The doctor has entered the prescription for a muscle relaxant and a painkiller directly to your pharmacy while you are still in the doctor's office.
2. You receive a secure message on your personal device from your pharmacy asking for your authorization to delivery the medications immediately.
3. You authorize the delivery. (You will have options at this point, for example, if you are going back to work instead of to your home you could have the delivery there, or you could schedule the delivery for a particular time, etc.)
4. Your authorization is also sent to your Autonomous Door. Your Autonomous Door could interact with you if there is a problem, such as it is currently full.
5. The pharmacy prepares the prescriptions and notifies the Autonomous Delivery system that the package is ready for pickup, and forwards your secure authorization.
6. The Autonomous Delivery system receives the information from the pharmacy and checks with you Autonomous Door to assure acceptance.
7. An Autonomous Vehicle picks up your prescription from the pharmacy. The vehicle is sealed to prevent tampering in transit, and the identification of the Autonomous Vehicle is forwarded to your Autonomous Door.
8. The Autonomous Delivery system can send you a secure confirmation with the details of the delivery plan.
9. At any stage you can change the delivery (for example, if the pharmacy took so long that you will have gone out to dinner, you could change the delivery to the restaurant where you are meeting your friends – the Autonomous Delivery system then needs to get authorization from the restaurant, etc.).
10. The Autonomous Vehicle is tracked during its travels to help assure that it is secure.
11. When the Autonomous Vehicles arrives, your Autonomous Door checks the identity of the Autonomous Vehicle, probably including a visual inspection to assure that only the Autonomous Vehicle is awaiting entry, checks to be sure that the tracking information is in order, and checks that the seal is still intact.
12. If you choose, you can be notified at the point to admit the contents.
13. The delivery can be completed in several ways, for example:

• Your Autonomous Door could admit the Autonomous Vehicle to your home to bring the contents directly to you
• The Autonomous Vehicle could open so your Autonomous Door can remove the contents from the Autonomous Vehicle
• Your Autonomous Door could place the contents in a holding area, to further protect against inappropriate deliveries
• Your Autonomous Door could forward to contents to you directly or to the refrigerator for storage
• If there is any question, the Autonomous Door can sequester the item, or refuse delivery.

Autonomous Screening services are available to check the Autonomous Vehicle before it arrives at your Autonomous Door, to screen deliveries if there is some doubt, for example, a chemical analysis for traces of human interference, plus on a random check for system integrity; for example, see the Autonomous Food Screening described below.

Autonomous Doors come in many sizes to accommodate delivery for different sizes of items, which I predict will become standardized, as boxes are today, for example, accommodating: pill bottles, food containers, people, vehicles, furniture, and standardized construction items. An Autonomous Door may include several sizes of openings, so that a large Autonomous Door can provide appropriate handling for different items.

Autonomous Doors can also work with non-Autonomous Delivery, for example when your favorite nephew shows up for an unexpected visit. You can screen the person whether you are on site, or remote. Then you can authorize entry or accept an item, for example if a neighbor brings you a homemade apple pie you can send it to the refrigerator or place it in a holding area in your Autonomous Door, or admit the person to deliver the pie and wait for you. Thus the Autonomous Door can be useful even before Autonomous Vehicles are in operation.

In the next Posts I’ll describe the other Autonomous Actors I mentioned above.