Baylor University has added robot delivery from Starship Technologies to its dining services offerings with the help of Grubhub. The initiative will see Baylor deploy a fleet of 20 delivery robots on the Waco, TX campus.
According to an official university release, Starship will deliver from seven campus dining locations, including Panda Express, Steak ‘n Shake, two Starbucks locations, Which Wich, Moe’s and Rising Roll. The service is available to all of Baylor's 20,000 plus students, faculty and staff on campus.
Food and drink orders from these participating retail dining locations can be delivered to any building on the Baylor campus, and students have the option to use meal plan Dining Dollars to pay for the delivered meal.
“Technology and great food service go hand in hand. We are excited to have these delivery bots on site to enhance the student experience and make dining on campus that much easier,” says Sean McMahon, resident district manager with Baylor Dining. “We hope the Baylor community enjoys this automated service from some of our on-campus retail locations.”
Baylor students must first download and open the Grubhub app, then place their order and select the location for their delivery to be sent. Each Starship robot can be flowed along its route on an interactive map on the user's smartphone. Once the robot arrives, they receive an alert to meet and unlock the robot through the app.
Starship deliveries are typically fulfilled within minutes, depending on the contents of the order and the chosen delivery location. Each robot can carry up to 20 pounds.
The Grubhub and Starship partnership is already providing robot food delivery services to campuses across the country. Since launch, the company says that a number of campuses leveraging the program have had to increase the number of robots, dining options and hours of operation to meet the high demand for the service.