In the not too distant future, polite robots will roam the streets delivering packages and an underground tunnel network will be woven into city planning.

That is the vision of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, its Head of Research Hui Cheng told a panel at CNBC's East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China on Tuesday.

With 51 billion of the world's 87 billion parcels needing to be shipped in the last year, Hui said JD intends to one day be able to automate the entire delivery pipeline, suggesting that this is a "golden stage for logistic automation and the logistical revolution."

To do this, the company is developing concepts for subterranean delivery systems which can be included within the planning of smart cities, but also has a more immediate vision for above ground delivery robots with social awareness.