Daytona Beach, FL - The robots are taking over... food delivery?
Starting this semester on the Daytona Beach campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), students will be greeted by an all new kind of delivery service, one completely made up of robots. These robots come from Starship Technologies—a San Francisco-based company—that helped ERAU become the first university in Florida to offer automated delivery robot service to its students.
This new service offers on-demand, zero-emission deliveries that will now be part of the dining options offered by food service provider Sodexo. Using Starship's food delivery app, available for free on iOS and Android devices, students can order from any of the 10 eateries available at the school and have one of the 20 autonomous robots deliver their meal anywhere on campus.
“It’s just another example of Embry-Riddle staying at the cutting edge of science and technology,” said Associate Vice President for Facilities Kevin Kreide. “Not only do we get to add this innovative new service option, but Starship Delivery also hires many students to handle the programming and maintenance for these autonomous machines, which is a perfect fit for students in Engineering and Robotics programs.”
“It’s a win-win. Food just tastes better when a robot delivers it to your door," Kreide added.
Embry-Riddle joins the other 16 universities across the country currently using Starship's delivery service. Reaching a maximum speed of 4 miles per hour, these robots have reportedly made more than 1.5 million deliveries, traveled millions of miles, and make more than 80,000 road crossings daily. The robots use a combination of sophisticated machine learning, artificial intelligence and sensors to navigate, mapping their environments to the nearest inch.
“We love working with innovative schools and look forward to hiring some of the students from the highly ranked engineering program,” said Ryan Tuohy, senior vice president of Business Development at Starship Technologies. “We think the Embry-Riddle campus community will not only enjoy the convenience that our on-demand robot delivery service provides, but they’ll appreciate having the opportunity to use this technology on a daily basis.”
In keeping with the environmentally friendly vision of the zero-emission deliveries, those who place orders via the robots will receive documentation of the gasoline and emissions they saved with their order.
For more information on Starship Technologies, be sure to visit their website.
