Little white robots trot around the IU Bloomington campus, mapping sidewalks and testing routes for a potential new dining delivery service.
The food delivery robots are part of IU Dining’s plan to expand meal options on campus. The current testing phase could lead to the implementation of this technology to IU in the near future.
There is no defined timeline for the project, but details will be available once testing is complete, according to an email from Jennifer Piurek, director of strategic communications and marketing at the IU Office of Finance.
Robots from Starship Technologies emerged on college campuses in 2019 at George Mason University. The Starship robots have been seen at other Midwest universities, including Purdue University and Ball State University.
Students have shown a strong interest in the new technology being implemented in day-to-day life at IU, especially when it comes to campus food.
“It feels like progress,” freshman Stanley Port said. "When I was little, I would see a couple of them, but it was like super new technology to have robots going around. Now there are lots of them on campuses. It feels like we are moving into the future.”
The robots will operate through the Grubhub app, and travel to locations up to two miles away, making on-the-go meals more accessible for IU students.
“It's an easy way to get my food in and get my calories in,” freshman Max Arnold said. “I think everybody benefits here; I'm avidly pro-robot.”
Many students said modernizing dining and improving convenience on campus could significantly enhance student life.
“I think it's showing that they (IU Dining) want to try new things, even if it doesn't end up being used as much as they think it will be,” freshman Siobhan Tabb said. “It shows they want to try to help their students out and find better solutions because it's a big campus and getting around can be difficult sometimes.”
Campus employees said the new technology could benefit them as well. Manaswi Suhagia, a Sugar and Spice employee, said dining robots could create a more successful dining model.
“The efficiency of the store would increase so much, and I think it would be really helpful if there were robots along with workers like us to reduce customer wait time as well as improve efficiency,” Suhagia said.
Tabb said excitement is already building for the potential upcoming dining innovation.
“Everyone’s going to want to try them out, so I think it's going to make people more excited to have something new like the robots on campus,” Tabb said.
