MUNICIPAL READINESS
As we near the half-way mark of drafting the ISO Technical Standard 4448 for Public-Area Mobile Robots (PMRs), the issue of municipal readiness has emerged as the key pillar we are focusing on for 2023. In April, the Urban Robotics Foundation hosted our first Municipal Readiness webinar with guest speaker Charissa Iogna from the City of Toronto. Her remarks included this wonderful testimonial about the value of membership: "Being a member of the URF allows us to be a part of the conversation, raise our concerns, have them validated, and talk through solutions to mitigate some of the challenges..."
We continue to expand our outreach efforts to help people anticipate, understand and prepare for how PMRs will impact a city's systems and its people. To that end, URF will be meeting delegates at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities 2023 Annual Conference and Trade Show on May 25-27th. If you are attending the event at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, please visit our booth (#126). We are delighted that one of our technology members, Ottonomy.io, has agreed to lend us a robot to help engage passers-by in stopping for a chat!
INTRODUCTORY WEBINARS
In the coming weeks and months we will continue to bring in guest speakers and offer opportunities for municipal planners, consultants, technology companies, accessibility advocates, and fleet operators to explore the issues of how to prepare for the deployment of PMRs (aka: micro-utility devices, sidewalk robots, personal delivery devices, etc.)
The next few sessions are open for registration now:
May 30th 12noon ET/9am PT/5pm GMT w/guest: Stephanie Dock, Washington DC
Zoom registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYpfuyurTgvH9D2vsJ8KWZeLBpZgYtGA1_u
Stephanie Dock is with the District Department of Transportation in Washington, DC. Stephanie leads the Innovation Division, which oversees autonomous vehicle testing and sidewalk delivery robots, is developing a drone program for agency purposes, and helps to guide the agency’s research & innovation processes.
June 13th 8pm ET/ 5pm PT (June 14 10am AEST/8am SGT) Register now: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIsceGhrDktGt21hpxvIz3O9eUMRcq5-lnn
June 27th 11am ET/8am PT/ 4pm GMT
Please share this blog post (and our webinar information) with anyone in your network who you think may find it of value. Here is a snapshot of the agenda for the webinars:
