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Ball State University is the latest institution to offer robot delivery for food and drinks, with the introduction of Starship. The entire Ball State campus community can leverage the Starship Technologies delivery robots.
According to an official university release, Ball State has deployed a fleet of 24 Starship robots. The autonomous robots will deliver food, snacks, and drinks from a variety of dining locations on campus.
“The Starship robots provide our students, faculty and staff, and campus visitors a safe and effective way to have food delivered to their location,” says Karen Adkins, senior director of auxiliary services for dining, catering, and events. “This will make for a more enjoyable campus experience while saving time for those who use the service.”
Individuals wanting to utilize the robots must download the Starship Food Delivery app in the App Store or Google Play. Once in the app, users can order from their favorite campus dining locations, select a delivery location or drop a pin where they’d like to meet the robot, and have food delivered anywhere on campus.
Other details, including hours of operation and from which dining locations food is available for delivery, will be available in the app.
To use the service, students must first download the Starship Food Delivery app from the App Store or Google Play. You drop a pin on a map selecting where you want to receive your delivery.
Once paid, you can track your robot as it travels along its route. Once the robot arrives, the user is sent an arrival notification, and can use their phone to unlock the robot via the app.
Each Starship order carries a small delivery fee. The robots themselves are equipped with six wheels and obstacle detection using 12 cameras, ultrasonic sensors, and radar. Each robot can deliver the equivalent of three shopping bags of goods.
“We’re excited to expand our services in Indiana,” says Chris Neider, director of business development at Starship Technologies. “Ball State has a very close-knit campus and we think the students will love having the robots become part of their community to make their lives more convenient and probably a little more fun as well with robots!”
Starship provides services to campuses across the country. The robots are zero-emission and have made more than 3.5 million autonomous deliveries and make more than 140,000 road crossings every day.
