Kiwibot and StoreXapp Are Working Together on Some Kind of Robot Store + Delivery
Looks like its available to lucky students Loyola Marymount University.
Any OttOmate readers out there go to Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Southern California? If so, can you please order some Pringles and a Coke and have it delivered — preferably by robot, and even more preferably, have items loaded into the delivery robot by another robot.
Kiwibot CEO Felipe Chávez Cortés posted a video to Linkedin today showing one of his company’s delivery robot being packed by an articulating arm (Substack doesn’t let me embed Linkedin posts).
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In the his post, Chavez thanks Sergei Mamedrzaev, Co-Founder of StoreXapp, which makes vertical autonomous retail towers than can dispense food, drinks and other goods. I emailed Mamedrzaev about the partnership, but he said he had nothing to announce publicly yet — though he pointed out that he posted the same video (from a different angle) two weeks ago.
I reached out to Kiwibot as well, but it’s pretty safe to assume at this point that StoreXapp and Kiwibot are working together on some kind of end-to-end automated retail + delivery solution. And judging by the logo on the Kiwibot, this particular pilot/test is happening at LMU.
Though we don’t have specific details, it’s not hard to imagine how this works. Students/faculty/staff order snacks, drinks or other goods, probably through the Bite U app, which LMU/Kiwibot page instructs students to download. A Kiwibot then rolls to the StoreXapp robot store that is probably tucked away in some garage on campus. Kiwibot opens up, StoreXapp’s arm grabs the items ordered and puts them inside the Kiwibot. StoreXapp’s robot then tells Kiwibot when the order is complete, at which time Kiwibot closes its lid and heads off to the recipient to make the delivery.
The result, in theory anyway, is that LMUers could order food, drinks and other goods around the clock. The store is fully autonomous, and only needs a human to re-stock it. Kiwibot is not fully autonomous (remote humans plot points for it to travel), but for the purposes of delivery on LMU, there isn’t a person running/biking around campus in the middle of the night, dropping off Snickers and Mountain Dew during finals week.
The news is made all the more intresting when you consider our scoop last week about Speedy Market in the Skyland high-rise in Istanbul. In that case, the building had its own autonomous store and delivery specifically for residents.
In other words, fully autonomous retail + delivery could quickly become a new perk for buildings/campuses with a defined set of residents.
If this LMU pilot works well, it’s not hard to see StoreXapp + Kiwibot team up to offer similar services at every college Kiwibot serves. The question now is whether Starship, which also has a big delivery robot presence on campuses will want to try and get in on this autonomous retail action.