A six-wheeled robot loaded with coffee and breakfast foods rolled away from the University Center on Tuesday, with hardworking students stopping to take photos as it drove through crosswalks on its way to Memorial Hall.
There it met Madison Varner, a third-year English student, and welcomed her with song and dance.
These robots are part of a new food delivery service brought to the university by SEMO Dining and Starship Technologies.
The Starship Delivery Robot travels down Greek Hill to reach its final destination, the Towers Residence Hall.Photo by Lily Niebrugge
The delivery service is available during restaurant opening hours and can also be used in rain and snow.
The food is delivered to the customer’s location on board the robot via GPS pin drop. There can even be music playing and dancing on arrival.
“It was a lot of fun. If you need some cheering up, it’s great,” Varner said. “I definitely think people should do it at least once.”
For others, like Dani Sitze, who has been focusing on early childhood development for the past year, the most important thing is to avoid crowds in restaurants.
“It seems cool,” Sitze said. “Less contact with people and I’m rather antisocial anyway.”
However, convenience and accessibility are the main reasons for this service, says Alicia Ticer, marketing and student engagement director at SEMO Dining.
Two Starship delivery robots meet in front of Dempster Hall.Photo by Lily Niebrugge
According to Starship’s website, safety and security are their top priority. The robots give way to pedestrians and other vehicles and can only be opened by the person who placed the order.
Starship sent the robots to SEMO over the summer to learn the campus layout, Ticer said. The vehicles have numerous cameras to observe the surroundings. In addition, the three axes are movable to avoid curbs or other obstacles.
“I don’t think they’re necessarily designed for such a hilly campus,” Varner said.
Sitze witnessed a robot flipping over on her way to class. Other students have shared videos of flipped or stuck Starship robots on their social media.
Despite some problems the machines face, they continue to learn and adapt to the routes they take, Ticer said.
“We ask everyone to be kind to our robot friends. Just as this is the first week of classes for our students, it is also the first week of deliveries for our Starship fleet,” Ticer said. “You can turn it back over if you see it has fallen down. It will thank you and find its way back home.”
The Starship delivery robot crosses the street in front of Towers Residence Hall to deliver food to first-year Early Childhood Education student Nakiya Blacksure.Photo by Lily Niebrugge
Starship Technologies has deployed delivery systems at over 50 universities across the United States, including Missouri State University and Missouri S&T.
In the event of a malfunction, the machines can be remotely controlled by a Starship technician.
A SEMO student, whose identity was not disclosed, was hired as a local Starship technician for the school.
Starship delivery robots do not currently serve the River Campus.
SEMO Dining used the spaceship robots for random giveaways during the first week of classes. That promotion has ended, but there will be more in the future, Ticer said.
