The Urban Robotics Foundation (URF) helps you anticipate how public mobile robots (PMRs) impact a city’s systems and people.
Focused on universal accessibility, we are developing the international standard ISO 4448 series for deploying and operating Public Mobile Robots (PMRs) within pedestrianized spaces. Accessibility must come first for PMRs to be accepted.
URF is the initiator and global project leader of the ISO International Standards series ISO 4448. The ISO4448 series is evolving and is targeted for completion in 2025.
We offer our members the opportunity to discuss and contribute to the standards in collaboration with other stakeholders. Our deep knowledge of ISO 4448 gives us a strategic view of how PMRs impact each stakeholder’s interests.
Join URF to learn the pros/cons and have a say in the international standards (ISO) intended to guide safe PMR integration into cities that want them.
Whether you’re an urban planner, accessibility advocate or technology company with a stake in how robots integrate into our cities, join the Urban Robotics Foundation. We can help.
PMRs do far more than deliver food and small packages for e-commerce. They can be used by municipalities for picking up litter, security patrol, spreading salt on sidewalks, parking citations and more.
As small electric devices that can replace much larger vehicles, PMRs reduce pollution and greenhouse gases as well as traffic volume. They share space with pedestrians (e.g. sidewalks and malls) and with bicycles and other road vehicles (e.g., at intersections). Safety and accessibility are critical concerns.
We offer a range of educational options, in collaboration with partners and sponsors to make them accessible across the globe. Please click any of these images or visit our events page to register for an upcoming workshop or webinar. We have also published several Guidebooks and offer advisory services.
The Urban Robotics Foundation (URF) was founded in 2021 as a global, membership-funded, non-profit organization that is bringing together stakeholders interested in public-area mobile robots (PMRs). Our goal is to help ensure that stakeholders understand the opportunities and challenges of PMRs and to build a global network of people focused on learning how PMRs can contribute to improved livability in urban ecosystems. Explore our Member Benefits
Governments decide whether to reject or permit PMRs (when, where and for what purpose). Accessibility – spaces that are safe and workable for everyone – is the overarching goal. We present the landscape as complex and nuanced, sharing ways that barriers might be overcome. We encourage stakeholders to collaborate to share ideas and best practices.
Bern Grush, Executive Director of URF, is the originator and project lead for the ISO draft technical standard 4448. His expertise fuels our deep understanding of the multiple overlapping city systems and stakeholders impacted by the deployment of PMRs.
