Solving the Last 50 Feet of Package Delivery With Legged Robots
Lee Redden, Founder of LastFeet joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss solving the last 50 feet of package delivery with a custom-built legged robot designed to ride in the jump seat of a delivery van and carry packages from the curb to the doorstep.
After co-founding Blue River Technology and selling it to Deere, Lee returned to building because he believes this is one of the best times ever to build robots. LastFeet’s robot walks on four legs with wheels on its feet, so it can climb the high step out of a box truck and then roll quickly and steadily to the door. It learns to walk entirely in simulation, a big change from the hand-calculated kinematics Lee learned in grad school.
The inspiration came from delivery drivers. Lee interviewed dozens of drivers and shadowed their routes, then modeled his robot on the runner, the second person who rides in the passenger seat on busy days and carries packages to the door while the driver keeps driving.
On day one, the robot sits in the jump seat with no change to how the back of the van is loaded. The driver loads a package, the robot bows at the door to set it on the step, and if it runs into something it can’t handle, it asks a remote human for help.
The first robot carries 15 pounds, which covers most packages, and runs on an NVIDIA Orin AGX with two-hour hot-swappable batteries. When it’s unsure what to do, its safety response is to freeze in place and turn into a table.
Episode Chapters
- 0:00 Why Lee Redden Is Building Again
- 02:41 How the LastFeet Robot Works
- 04:56 How to Build a Robot in 2026
- 07:27 Testing in Snow and Ice
- 10:00 How the Robot Delivers to Every Doorstep
- 12:43 Riding in the Jump Seat of a Delivery Van
- 15:00 Manufacturing at Scale
- 18:46 Building for Rugged Delivery Vans
- 22:54 LastFeet Business Model
- 29:32 Battery Life and Charging in the Van
- 32:11 What Lee Learned Shadowing 50 Delivery Drivers
- 37:28 Safety and Building Trust With the Public
- 40:18 The Future of LastFeet
- 43:11 AUTNMY AI
The future is bright. The future is autonomous. The future is The Road to Autonomy.
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