When you're the world's largest retailer, customers expect a premium delivery experience — without paying a premium. But being the biggest seller on the planet also comes with a few perks. 

The patent, filed last week with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, describes a solution that combines driverless technology with delivery drones and robots. Under the proposal, Walmart would use automated guided vehicles (AGVs) that follow a predetermined route. But if they run into any obstacles, they would automatically release a drone to complete the delivery.

"Recently, efforts have been made to deploy autonomous ground vehicles to complete deliveries to customers. The use of autonomous ground vehicles, however, presents its own challenges," the patent reads. "More specifically, autonomous ground vehicles will often encounter obstacles that may prevent them from completing the delivery, such as, for example, motor vehicles, people, animals, road constructions, curbs and closed gates."

Walmart described drones as the "back-up mechanism" in cases in which deliveries using AGVs don't go as planned.

Watch: Delivering everything with drones

The robots would be equipped with one or more sensors — the patent mentions laser, ultrasound, optical and infrared sensors as potential options. When those sensors determine that the AGV has been stopped by an obstacle, in certain cases, a drone mounted on top of the robot will fly the rest of the route.

Those include situations in which the AGV is stopped and does not have enough battery power, the obstacle does not move within a given amount of time, the system cannot find an alternative ground-based route, or the AGV will not arrive by the scheduled delivery time.

In any of these cases, the system would automatically attempt to calculate a new delivery route for the robot, creating one for the drone if no alternative exists. Then, the drone would launch from the top of the robot, secure the package from the robot's storage area using a grabbing mechanism, and travel to the customer's location to make the drop-off.

"For example, the AGV might get stuck at the gate in front of a customer's residence," the patent suggested. "So, the AGV could travel all the way to the gate, and the UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] can then grab the package and deliver it to the residence."

Related:

Read: Walmart kicks fulfillment into high gear with next-generation centers

Read: Walmart and DroneUp expanding drone delivery to 6 states, 4 million people

If the solution outlined in last week's patent filing comes to fruition, it would effectively combine all of those technologies for the first time. As it stands, plenty of firms have experimented with robot, drone and driverless deliveries — but none has managed to successfully integrate all three.

Walmart did not immediately respond to Modern Shipper's request for comment.

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