COVID -19 - The robots are coming!

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

In 2018, observers were already predicting more robots everywhere, whether in kitchens, restaurants, warehouses, or surgery rooms (Marston, 2018; About Da Vinci). Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, robots are in even greater demand, for reasons not entirely unforeseen. For example, robots have long been used for performing tasks dangerous to humans, such as working in radioactive environments, in deep space or deep in the ocean, and for fire-fighting (Matthews, 2018; Iborra et al., 2003). Thus, it comes as no huge surprise that robots, which never get sick, might now be sought for working in the highly contagious situations of the COVID 19 pandemic (Albrecht, April 24, 2020). At the end of the day, what is interesting is the diversity of ways in which robots are indeed becoming increasingly instrumental, within the specifically unprecedented context of the COVID 19 pandemic.

For example, the demand for food delivery robots, is increasing. For shuttered restaurants, permitted only to retain “take-out” activity, delivery robots expand the client base to similarly shuttered clients. Likewise, for the newly mandated “socially-distant modes of interaction”, delivery robots reduce both interactions among humans, and the number of people in contact with food (Albrecht, May 13, 2020). If delivery robots solved “the last-mile delivery problem” (i.e.; an estimated 41% of the logistics costs for moving goods) prior to the pandemic (Dolan, 2018), they now solve the last mile with bonuses. Robots are far easier to control for sanitation than human hand-washing, or the absence of fever and symptoms. Indeed, robots are in. More than welcome, they are a blessing. On the upside of drastic “stay-at-home” orders, sidewalks are now clear of pedestrians, which also facilitates robot navigation.

Kiwibots are an example of a robot-based food-delivery system that charmed campuses, prior to the pandemic. Kiwibots were not only cute because they delivered burritos or pizza from participating restaurants and stores, with a wink and a smile --  right to your doorstep or location. The company Kiwi Campus Inc., developed a business model that relied on robotics-loving student groups to scale up the delivery service at new campuses. 

Robotics-loving students themselves, originally hailing from The University of the Andes in Bogota, Columbia, the Kiwi Campus Inc., founders, Felipe Chávez Cortés, Jason Oviedo and Sergio Pachón, now based at UC Berkeley, banked on others with the same aspirations, keeping the whole enterprise in the hands of people who were truly enthusiastic and committed. As a result, the company was managing 10,000 deliveries a day, in 2019, just two years after its inception (Coldeway, 2019). Now, as campuses are closed, the company continues to expand, partnering with Ordermark the online ordering management company for restaurants, and Shopify, a cloud-based multichannel commerce platform for small and medium-sized companies, both having agreed to include on their platforms, an option for a Kiwibot fleet, delivering food and goods. New partnerships for Kiwibots that are now being launched in the San José, California, downtown and Buena Vista areas (Korosec, July 2020).

Kiwibots are semi-autonomous vehicles, which means that they rely on sophisticated sensor technology to navigate sidewalks on their itineraries, in coordination with a team of human teleoperators, based in Bogota, Columbia. The supervising bogotanos manage all of the Kiwibot sidewalk crossings, for example, and are on standby to respond to any emergencies that might arise (McDonald, 2019).  Such a team of teleoperators was included because autonomous kiwibots were not quite 100% safe, which was not good enough, according to the company (Coldeway, 2019).

Below, a Youtube video, showing A day in the life of a kiwibot, from the perspective of the robot. A visualizing functionality also available to customers, using the kiwibots app for tracking their deliveries.

If you are in downtown San José, for one reason or another, remember to keep an eye out for one of the cute Kiwibots, which might be sharing sidewalks for delivering their payload to happy customers!

References

About Da Vinci Systems: Surgical robotics for minimally invasive surgery.. https://www.davincisurgery.com/da-vinci-systems/about-da-vinci-systems

Albrecht, C. (April 24, 2020) Bear Robotics CEO on the Role of Restaurant Server Robots in a COVID (and Beyond) World.  https://thespoon.tech/bear-robotics-ceo-on-the-role-of-restaurant-server-robots-in-a-covid-and-beyond-world/

Albrecht, C. (May 13, 2020) From Restaurants Floors to Your Front Door, Food Robots are on the Rise. https://thespoon.tech/from-restaurants-floors-to-your-front-door-food-robots-are-on-the-rise/

Coldeway, D. (April 25, 2019) Kiwi’s food delivery bots are rolling out to 12 new colleges. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/25/kiwis-food-delivery-bots-are-rolling-out-to-12-new-colleges/

Dolan, S. (May 10, 2018) The challenges of last-mile delivery logistics & the technology solutions cutting costs. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/last-mile-delivery-shipping-explained

Iborra , A., Pastor, J. A., Alvarez, B, Fernanadez, C and J. M. F. Merono  (2003) Robots in radioactive environments.  IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine ,Volume: 10 , Issue: 4 , Dec. 2003. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1256294

Korosec, K. (July 21, 2020) Kiwibot delivery robots head to San Jose with new partners Shopify and Ordermark. TechCrunch. https://tinyurl.com/y4fsx8eb

Kiwibots. https://www.kiwibot.com/

Kiwi Campus Organization. TechCrunch. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/kiwi-campus

Marston, J. (Oct. 2018) Expect More Robots and Fewer Menus in the Restaurant of 2030 (Oct 2018). https://thespoon.tech/expect-more-robots-and-fewer-menus-in-the-restaurant-of-2030/

Matthews, K. (April 19, 2018) 5 ways robots help keep people safe. Robotics Tomorrow. https://www.roboticstomorrow.com/article/2018/04/5-ways-robots-help-keep-people-safe/11783/

McDonald, C. (2019) Hungry for Kiwi… bots UC Berkeley Alumini – California Magazine – Spring 2019. https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/spring-2019/hungry-kiwibots

Ordermark. https://www.ordermark.com/

Shopify. https://www.shopify.com/

Staff (June 1, 2018) Kiwi’s little robot that could (deliver the last mile). PYMNTS.com. https://www.pymnts.com/news/delivery/2018/kiwi-robot-delivery-last-mile/