Ottobots, Roll Out!.. to Deliver Food at CVG Airport

Ottonomy brings actually autonomous robots to airports.

The News

Ottonomy announced today that its autonomous robots are now making food and beverage deliveries at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport (CVG). The service is being offered in Concourse B of the airport, where travelers use orderatcvg.com (powered by Crave) to place orders from select retailers operated by Paradies Lagardere.

Ottonomy’s robot does not rely on GPS as much as other delivery robots do, and is therefore able to navigate and make deliveries both indoors and outdoors. Once the robot arrives with the delivery at CVG, customers receive a QR code that is scanned by the Ottobot’s camera to unlock the cargo bay.

CVG first started piloting Ottonomy’s robots in late 2020, and in its press release, Ottonomy said that this is the first autonomous robotic delivery of food and beverages in an airport environment. The key word here is “autonomous.” The robot delivery programs recently launched at Seattle Airport and LAX are actually not autonomous, and instead follow a human through the terminal.

Why This Matters

Today’s announcement is actually a nice intersection of two trends: delivery robots and airport innovation.