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Bridgewater State University Using Robots To Deliver Food To Students

BRIDGEWATER (CBS) - A new addition to the campus at Bridgewater State University - robots delivering meals to students, everything from pizza to coffee.

We came across Sophomore Justin Snow, who had just received a delivery. "I love them. I'm in my flip flops and everything. I'm lazy. And it's very easy to just order food and whenever you want," Snow said.

Staci DeSimone is the General Manager at Sodexo, which provides meal services to the University.

"You get those cold, windy days. Students don't really want to go outside. So they enjoy the opportunity of being able to have a robot deliver for them," said DeSimone.

BSU is the first school in the Northeast to use the robots made by Starship Technologies, which can be found on 15 school campuses in the U.S.

Robots Bridgewater State University
The robots at Bridgewater State University bring meals to students. (WBZ-TV)

Operations site lead for Starship Technologies Joe Maloney explained that it all works through an app.

"They would download the Starship app. They would pick the campus that they're on, which vendor they would like to order from. Once they put together their order, they're able to actually pinpoint on the map where they would like it delivered to," said Maloney.

And the new technology comes at a good time.

"It's something different, it's something totally new and in the time period of the pandemic, it really worked out really well. It makes the students feel even safer," said DeSimone.

The robots are cleaned often throughout the day.

"They're sanitized every night, but before every delivery, they're cleaned, sanitized again," Vice President of Operations at BSU Karen Jason said.

The program has been so successful, there's already plans to add more robots. Currently, there's 15 on campus, with 10 more coming in the Fall.

"Very, very well received," said Jason. "We're doing about 750 deliveries a week. So it far exceeds what I had expected."

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