As of Monday, Jan. 27, Colorado State University students and faculty can have meals delivered by autonomous robots, thanks to a new partnership with Starship Technologies and Grubhub.
The robots can deliver up to 100 pounds of hot or cold food within 30 to 60 minutes, according to the Starship website. The service comes with a $3.49 delivery fee that goes to Grubhub and Starship, which was started by Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis.
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“We’ve had so many orders that our robots are completely backed up,” said Lucas Miller, director of residential dining services on day one of the initiative. “Everybody seems really excited.”
Although delivery robots are new to Colorado, Starship operates on over 55 college campuses across the country. Miller said getting the delivery robots to CSU had been in the works for around four years.
“We have students that are working with the robots in each one of the restaurants on campus. It’s giving experiential learning opportunities to a lot of students for kind of a totally different technology that they probably wouldn’t get exposed to otherwise.” -Lucas Miller, director of residential dining services
“There’s a bit of a learning curve in how they navigate sidewalks and what the impacts are to pedestrian traffic and bicycle traffic and understanding the different city codes and ordinances,” Miller said.
Starship hired Tevis Parent, a CSU student studying computer science, as a robot engineer.
“My favorite part is performing upgrades so the robots have the most updated hardware,” Parent said in an email. “There’s just something satisfying about a diagnostic readout coming back as successful after an upgrade.”
Parent recalled the time he realized the robots can do more than just deliver food. In fact, they can interact with customers and play music when requested.
“While I was preparing one of the bots for launch, another bot plugged into the charger started playing ‘Dancing Queen’ by ABBA,” Parent said. “That’s when I learned that the bots will speak to customers and play music upon completion of delivery.”
Parent is just one of many students who will work with the robots on a daily basis. By integrating more technology into campus life, Miller hopes this initiative will give students a unique hands-on learning experience.
“We have students that are working with the robots in each one of the restaurants on campus,” Miller said. “It’s giving experiential learning opportunities to a lot of students for kind of a totally different technology that they probably wouldn’t get exposed to otherwise.”
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The robots are equipped with sensors, 360-degree cameras, artificial intelligence and machine learning software to navigate campus through a variety of conditions. However, it may take the robots a few weeks to collect enough campus data to achieve maximum capabilities.
“(Starship) described to us, like, the first few weeks you’re probably going to see robots that maybe look a little confused or maybe aren’t moving super smooth,” Miller said. “That’s normal at the beginning.”
Grubhub provides CSU and Starship with the data needed to make assessments on the success of the delivery bots, including the volume of orders, pattern of deliveries and impact on dining operations. Because the majority of operations are owned and overseen by Starship — including the robots themselves — the overall cost of the project is relatively low for CSU.
“The only cost to the university was that we had to modify a storage area for the robots to store at night and to charge and to be cleaned and to be in for maintenance,” Miller said.
According to a CSU SOURCE article, the robots also come at a low cost to the environment, acting as a zero-emissions alternative to traditional delivery options.
“The robots are battery operated and can go nearly a single day on a full charge,” Parent said. “This not only reduces congestion on roads but also reduces CO2 emissions.”
As the new robots continue to upgrade and integrate into dining services, CSU will continue to assess data and monitor feedback to determine the long-term role of autonomous delivery on campus.
Reach Chloe Waskey at news@collegian.com or on social media @CSUCollegian.
