Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can see the use for them under quarantine in a pandemic but otherwise they annoy me. Kids too lazy to walk to dining hall? Or to walk downstairs to meet Door Dash? Lame.

Actually, the program started at GMU ten years ago as robotic research to create these robots for private restaurant use. GMU is the largest R1 research university in the Commonwealth. During covid private deliveries were commenced using the robots that GMU created. https://cec.gmu.edu/strengths/robotics-and-autonomous-systems/robotics-research

The robots people are talking about (Starship) were developed in Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Technologies

Anonymous wrote:I can see the use for them under quarantine in a pandemic but otherwise they annoy me. Kids too lazy to walk to dining hall? Or to walk downstairs to meet Door Dash? Lame.

Actually, the program started at GMU ten years ago as robotic research to create these robots for private restaurant use. GMU is the largest R1 research university in the Commonwealth. During covid private deliveries were commenced using the robots that GMU created. https://cec.gmu.edu/strengths/robotics-and-autonomous-systems/robotics-research

In 2020; one got run over and they held a vigil for it. It was really cute.

Anonymous wrote:Picture?

https://www.breezejmu.org/business/starships-were-meant-to-fly-robots-take-off-with-jmu-dining/article_7368b352-1549-11eb-b731-5386580e8110.html

Ole Miss has them everywhere. They are so cool!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can see the use for them under quarantine in a pandemic but otherwise they annoy me. Kids too lazy to walk to dining hall? Or to walk downstairs to meet Door Dash? Lame.

Tons of sick kids at my daughter’s school right now and the robots can deliver medicine, Gatorade, soup, etc. They’re awesome.

+1
They can also deliver several pizzas at once, or a tray of coffees etc. --things that would be hard to carry and stay warm. The robot is well-insulated and has temperature controls. Perfect for meetings, student events, study groups.

Anonymous wrote:Picture?

Google?

Picture?

Anonymous wrote:I can see the use for them under quarantine in a pandemic but otherwise they annoy me. Kids too lazy to walk to dining hall? Or to walk downstairs to meet Door Dash? Lame.

Tons of sick kids at my daughter’s school right now and the robots can deliver medicine, Gatorade, soup, etc. They’re awesome.

Anonymous wrote:I can see the use for them under quarantine in a pandemic but otherwise they annoy me. Kids too lazy to walk to dining hall? Or to walk downstairs to meet Door Dash? Lame.

They have to go to the door to meet the robot.

I can see the use for them under quarantine in a pandemic but otherwise they annoy me. Kids too lazy to walk to dining hall? Or to walk downstairs to meet Door Dash? Lame.

GMU definitely has had them for a number of years. Adorable!

JMU and GMU have these still.

Purdue has them - they are running strong from the looks of things. Kids are now used to an uber-eat/grubhub world with food delivery.

DD is at one of the schools where Starship Tech has about 25 robots on various campuses doing delivery from the food Marts and dining halls. At hers it started in 2020 and was still there last year when she was a freshman. Now upon visiting at move in to her apartment and going around campus we didn’t see them anymore. Apparently they pulled out of the city where her college is in.

I know they have other competitors on other campuses. I wonder if they are of little to no use now with the decline of Covid isolation.