The vehicles stand at less than knee-height and move along quietly, using flags to alert pedestrians of their presence. Digital displays of eyes on the front of the vehicles suggest changing facial expressions.
While that may be endearing, if someone thinks of snatching one, the robot will sound an alarm and GPS technology will assist in locating it.
Sodexo, which provides food services and operates dining facilities at the university, is piloting a venture with robot delivery company Kiwibot that will bring a fleet of approximately 25 vehicles onto campus with plans for more.
By the time students move into residence halls and classes begin, food services director Dwayne Wisniewski plans for the robots to be ready to deliver orders door-to-door for students, faculty and staff.
Fees for the service will be included in some meal plan subscriptions or can be paid on an individual basis. The fee for a single delivery, Wisniewski said, will be $2 plus 10 percent of the ticket.
Customers arrange the deliveries by placing their orders through Sodexo’s “Bite U” mobile app. When their order is loaded into the robot’s locking compartment — large enough to hold coffees, individual meals, even a nine-inch pizza — it sends a text message to the customer that it is on its way.
The vehicles operate autonomously with the help of cameras, sensors and internal memory, while human operators can assume control as needed. The machines are sanitized between missions, Wisniewski said, and the transactions require little in the way of touch.
Wisniewski said NMSU was hosting Kiwibot’s largest on-campus rollout yet, although their robots have also reached the University of California Berkeley and University of Denver.
“We have plans for 30 robots,” he said, and if the pilot is successful, he envisioned allowing businesses off campus to participate, as Kiwibot’s vehicles can operate in city environments following traffic lights and using marked crossings. Indeed, Kiwibot operates in several cities, including downtown San Jose, California; Medellín, Colombia; and Taipei, Taiwan.
“There’s always a human operator,” Wisniewski said. “There’s a cell phone system and it’s redundant ... and the human person will always be in touch.”
The Kiwibot service is set to begin on Monday, Aug. 16.
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