The robots are coming! Marquette launches high-tech food delivery service
Attention drivers: If you're cruising down Wisconsin Avenue and see what looks like a two-eyed black box on tiny wheels, you're not hallucinating.
The robots have arrived.
The motorized machines recently joined the throngs of Marquette University students crossing the major thoroughfare that cuts through campus. And they have a job to do, delivering food to hungry students, faculty and staff who submit orders through their smartphones.
The fleet of 15 Kiwibots have been rolling all over campus in the past month, learning Marquette's terrain through a mix of sensors and artificial intelligence to map it into their memory.
A soft launch with one of the campus coffee shops took place this week and expanded service at other dining locations is expected in the coming weeks, said Melanie Vianes, who leads the university's dining services.
"They're certainly creating a buzz on campus," she said.
Student reaction to the robots has ranged from "cute" to "creepy" to "weird." One tried standing in front of a Kiwibot to see if it would recognize him and readjust its course (it did). Others have taken pictures of the bots or even with the bots.
Kiwibots can be programmed to have different "personalities," Vianes said. Heart eyes, star eyes and winking eyes are among the options. The robots are also essentially rolling billboards with display screens that can promote various campus programs.
When a delivery arrives, the customer unlocks the robot's lid by swiping on their smartphone. Inside is their order, which hopefully arrived in 30 minutes or less.
"We talk about robots all the time in class," said sophomore Connor Baldwin. "It's so weird to see worlds collide and they're all over campus now."
Baldwin said he wasn't interested in ordering food through Kiwibot, saying the cost of a meal plan is high enough without the additional delivery charge.
Subscriptions cost $40 for 15 deliveries, $109 for 45 and $159 for 70. Unused deliveries expire at the end of each semester.
Grace Scalzo, a graduate student in the College of Communication, said she wouldn't mind giving Kiwibots a try. The per-delivery charge of about $2 is less than other third-party delivery apps, such as UberEats and Grubhub, because robots don't expect a tip.
Sodexo, Marquette's food service vendor, contracts with Kiwibot to offer the delivery service. Officials expect orders to pick up in the colder months when students are hunkered down in their dorm or at the library and unwilling to brave the cold for a burger or bagel.
Kiwibots are accustomed to roaming in the cold and their insides are insulated, a company representative said. For now, as the bots learn the lay of the land, a chaperone will accompany them on deliveries that involve crossing a street.
Dining by robot delivery is slowly becoming more mainstream among Wisconsin universities.
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is also launching a fleet of Kiwibots on campus this fall.
UW-Madison partnered with a different company, Starship Technologies, though the general concept is the same. The university's 30-bot fleet debuted in November 2019, which turned out to be good timing. The robots offered students a dining option without needing to set foot in a busy dining hall during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last school year, UW-Madison received nearly 80,000 orders, said UW-Madison spokesperson Brendon Dybdahl.
"The Starship robots have become a very popular fixture on our campus," he said. "Students take pictures with them, help them when they occasionally get stuck, and treat them almost like people."
Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KellyMeyerhofer.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Robot food delivery services launches at Marquette
