Robot.com is partnering with food delivery giant Grubhub to bring its autonomous delivery robots to 10 new university campuses across the US.
The expansion brings the total number of active Robot.com deployments across the Grubhub Campus platform to 20 nationwide.
In total, the San Francisco-based company has now served 50 campuses and 150 campus restaurants, completing over 350,000 deliveries.
Students are using Robot.com’s autonomous robots to order local takeaway meals and fast food.
At the University of Southern Indiana, one of the original campuses under the agreement, the fleet has completed more than 25,000 deliveries.
“Campus delivery remains a core piece of our business model,” J. Kim Fennell, Chief Business Officer of Robot.com, told IZON. “It’s where Robot.com started, and our recent expansions with both Sodexo and Grubhub show the momentum we’re seeing in the space.”
Fennell added that campus deployments have served as an early proving ground for REMI, the company’s fleet management platform. “Campuses are crowded, unpredictable, real-world settings, and years of running there have built the operational knowledge that powers our fleet and shapes every new deployment in food service, warehousing, logistics, and industrial operations.”
The three-year extension to the partnership also now includes robot advertising, turning delivery into interactive brand experiences for students.
The next step for Robot.com is bringing R-dog to campuses, a four-legged robot built for the last 100 metres where wheeled robots can’t access.
In June, the company announced it was moving into labour automation with R-noid, a new wheeled humanoid robot built for repetitive, hard-to-staff jobs.
