Inspiration
DockBot is a proof-of-concept chatbot originally developed for the 2017 AWS Chatbot Challenge.
Seventy percent of the 3.5 million truck drivers in the US lose time or money regularly due to unforeseen circumstances at their drop-off or pick-up locations. The problems include the really significant and surprising (the address they're given is for the front office, not the actual dock location), to the mundane (they have take time to find shelter for their dog because a facility has a no-pets policy).
Dock411 is a driver-sourced database of more than forty attributes for docks across America. Drivers use our app to lookup their next stop before they leave, so they know what the company and other drivers say about it. Dispatchers and back-office staff use our website to research shipper ratings to help the drivers and make decisions about whether to take a load and how to price it.
Ultimately, Dock411 is building a unique database of location information valuable to the trucking, transportation, logistics, and insurance industries.
We've been called "the coolest trucking app" by some of the best drivers in the business!
Although we provide an app for drivers to use to look up their next stop, we understand it may not always be convenient or safe for them to handle a smartphone while driving. (We definitely do NOT recommend they handle their phone at all while they're driving!)
To address the needs of those drivers, we are building a chatbot service which we will ultimately expose through AWS Connect giving drivers a way to call a phone number to query and update our database.
This version of DockBot is our proof-of-concept for the core AWS Lex and AWS Lambda functionality that will be required for the final project.
What it does
DockBot provides a means for truck drivers to query our database through a chat, and eventually an interactive voice response, interface, which will allow them to keep their hands on the wheel as they look up information about their next stop.
How I built it
Dock411 provides a developer friendly API to query and update our database running on AWS Aurora. Our API runs in the AWS cloud and is exposed through AWS API Gateway.
DockBot uses AWS Lex and Lambda to query our API.
Challenges I ran into
Learning Python!
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
Learning Python, AWS Lex and Lambda. I was able to build a proof-of-concept system which has impressed our customers, partners, and investors. DockBot is a fantastic demonstration of our innovation and vision for the future.
I am especially proud of the fact that I was able to build a working prototype in a matter of hours; it speaks to the awesome power of the AWS services.
What I learned
AWS services continue to impress.
What's next for DockBot
Next up for DockBot is the ability to query any of the 46 attributes we track for docks in the US, then expose DockBot through AWS Connect.
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