Today [17 November] Cambridgeshire County Council, robotics company Starship Technologies and grocery retailer Co-op unveiled a new joint scheme to bring food delivery robots to Cambridge.
This announcement follows a pilot of the same bots in Cambourne earlier this year, which reportedly led to 98% of trial participants saying they’d recommend the delivery devices to a friend.
As a result, the county’s Highways and Transport Committee decided to roll out the delivery service to 12,200 residents of Cherry Hinton and Queen Edith, two areas of Cambridge.
Grocery orders can be made through Starship’s app for iOS and Android, with the Co-op stores on Perne Road and Cherry Hinton Road providing the food and packing. The companies behind the scheme claim grocery orders arrive within an hour.
Read more: Co-op rolls out delivery robots in Bedford and Kempston
The robot can be traced using a real-time map through the app, with customers then using the app to unlock the bot upon arrival.
On the Cambridge rollout, Alex Beckett, councillor and chair of Cambridgeshire County Council’s Highways and Transport Committee, said: “We are excited to see how the robot delivery service integrates into the day-to-day lives of the residents of Cambridge.
“The advancement of technology has been a backbone of Cambridge for many years now and this is just another step towards a cleaner more sustainable future.
“As well as a reduction in short car journeys, the robots will provide assistance to working families and the elderly who struggle to leave their houses to go shopping.
“The pilot also gives us a chance to showcase how history and technology can combine throughout the city streets as we become the leading light in the future of personal, eco-robotic delivery services.”
Andrew Curtis, UK operations manager at Starship Technologies, said: “We are delighted to be expanding our on-demand, quick and sustainable grocery delivery service to an additional 12,200 residents in Cambridge.
“Our friendly robots have been very well received, and as a result are actively reducing traffic congestion and carbon emissions in the areas they operate in.
“We are very much looking forward to working closely with Cambridgeshire County Council and Co-op, and hope to further expand our service over the coming years.”
According to Starship, the robots are battery powered, lightweight and travel at the speed of a pedestrian (no faster than 4mph or 6km/h) and are designed to use a combination of sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning to traverse pavements and navigate obstacles. The developer adds that they were developed to use computer vision-based navigation to enable them to map their environment to the nearest inch.
What’s more, the company claims that the average delivery for a Starship bot consumes as little energy as boiling a kettle to make a cup of tea, aligning with the company’s environmental ambitions.
