“Robot delivery is exciting for students and helps provide even better service and innovative solutions to our campus partners,” said Eric Harper, a senior director of campus environments at Grubhub.
Grubhub, a top online and mobile food-ordering and delivery platform for university and college campuses, and Cartken, a technology startup that specializes in self-driving robotics, announced a partnership to bring robot delivery to college campuses. At Ohio State University, this distribution was trialed in the spring. When students return to campus in the fall, a complete rollout of robotic delivery for orders is anticipated at the university.
Cartken’s robots are designed to easily traverse any campus environment without human assistance. The robots use pavements, crosswalks, and pedestrian routes to their advantage. Cartken’s artificial intelligence (AI) and camera-based navigation and mapping technology is used by the robots, despite originally being created for small autonomous cars to function safely near pedestrians. If there is a major obstacle the robot is unable to overcome then human override is still a viable option; this ensures functionality and reduces delays in delivery times. On-campus, Cartken’s robots can go up to three miles per hour and handle a variety of weather conditions, such as rain and snow.
Ohio State University remains extremely excited about the return of robots to campus, and throughout the spring semester, and tests have continued to be done by the school and met with positive results. Zia Ahmed, the senior director of Student Life Dining Services at OSU, noted that the robots are a step in the right direction for reducing cost of delivery and improving sustainability, as well as being popular amongst students.
Grubhub currently has partnerships with over 250 college campuses around the United States. Their partnership program facilitates the integration of meal plans into a Grubhib account and gives access to restaurants for delivery services both on and off-campus.Grubhub’s relationship with Cartken for autonomous robot delivery complements the company’s existing campus offering and is a natural fit for university locations, which are notoriously tough for automobiles to maneuver.
Grubhub elevates meal ordering through innovative restaurant technology, easy-to-use platforms, and a better delivery experience, connecting more than 32 million diners with the food they love from their favorite local restaurants. Cartken’s mission is to bring communities closer together by bridging the gap between customers and the local businesses they care about. Their respective outlooks and goals make their partnership a natural one which is mutually beneficial to both.
Featured Image: Megapixl © Tiero
