The University of Houston (UH) has become the first institution of higher education in the state of Texas to offer robotic food deliveries on its campus.

The result of a partnership between the University of Houston and Chartwells Higher Education, which manages UH Dining, the robotic delivery service utilizes Starship Technologies’ autonomous delivery robots.

“This revolutionary delivery method will make it more convenient for the campus community to take advantage of our diverse dining program from anywhere on campus while expanding the hours of operation,” says Emily Messa, UH associate vice president for administration.

“By opening our campus to this innovative service, which is paid for by the customers, the university didn’t have to spend any money purchasing the technology, yet we’re enhancing our food delivery capabilities.”

As the case with delivery services of this kind on other campuses, users start the delivery process by opening the Starship Deliveries app and selecting what they want from one of eleven UH Dining locations. After choosing their desired items, users decide where they want their food to be delivered by selecting a location on the service map and dropping a pin.

Using an interactive map, users can then watch as the robot makes its journey to them. Once the robot arrives, users receive an alert, and can then meet and unlock it through the app.

The delivery is usually completed within minutes, depending on the menu items ordered and the distance the robot has to travel. Each robot is capable of carrying up to 20 pounds, which is the equivalent of approximately three shopping bags of goods.

“This increases our capacity to reach more customers, and I expect the robots will quickly become part of campus life,” says David Riddle, Chartwells resident district manager. 

“Robot delivery will also grow opportunities for UH Dining employees by increasing service hours and growing sales. It has also created additional jobs for students dedicated specifically to servicing the autonomous robots. It’s an important advancement for foodservice at UH.”

Starship’s robots can travel on sidewalks and navigate around obstacles thanks to a combination of sophisticated machine learning, artificial intelligence and sensors. The robots can map their environment to the nearest inch thanks to their computer vision-based navigation.

Capable of operating in both rain and snow, as well as during the night, the robots can also cross streets and climb curbs. Their progress can be monitored remotely by a team of humans, who can take control of the robots at a moment’s notice.