Zipline Makes One Millionth Automated Drone Delivery

Pudu releases new models, Aldi + Grabango, Serve goes public

We’ve got automated drones hitting new milestones, Pudu going coo-coo (in a good way,) Serve serving up stock, and so much more. Read on!

Zipline Hits One Million Deliveries

Drone delivery leader Zipline just made its millionth delivery, and to celebrate it’s announcing some new partners: Panera Bread, Memorial Hermann Health System and Jet’s Pizza. The Panera partnership will go live in the Seattle area, thanks to mega-franchisee Flynn Group; the Jet’s Pizza partnership takes place in the pie maker’s hometurf of Metro Detroit; the tie-up with Memorial Hermann will move vital medical supplies around the Houston region.

Pudu Updates BellaBot, Releases T300

Service robotics leader Pudu Robotics is updating its BellaBot line of tray-handling automatons. Released in 2019, the BellaBot has gone on to serve in high-traffic locales like PizzaHut, Jollibee, Carrefour, KFC and Walmart. Now the new BellaBot Pro has enhanced advertising capabilities, thanks to the introduction of a new 18.5 inch screen, plus improved wayfinding via VSLAM+, new greetings for specific customers, greater tray detection capabilities, dish recognition, and more.

The company is also making its first foray into industrial applications with the release of the T300 Industrial Delivery Robot. It’s meant to deliver supplies to production lines, transfer materials across diverse production zones, and facilitate the transport of samples for quality checks. The bot also uses VSLAM+, allowing it to navigate spaces of up to 200,000 square meters.

Serve Robotics Hits Stock Market

Serve Robotics became the first sidewalk delivery robotics company to go public, hitting the Nasdaq on Thursday with the ticket SERV. The company’s reverse merger raised about $40 million, before underwriting expenses, with shares starting at $4 a pop. As of close of markets on Monday, the stock sits at about $3.15.

Aldi Intros Grabango Self-Checkout

Grocery giant Aldi is partnering with Grabango, introducing the latter’s camera-powered self-checkout technology. From a user’s perspective, the shopping experience is quite similar to Amazon’s Just Walk Out, which the ecommerce heavy-hitter recently decided to scale back. The Seattle-based company also recently released more details on what drove its decision to retrench the concept to just smaller format stores.

In Other News

OttOmate’s Publisher Jonah Bliss talks to Hormel Foods about robotics in foodservice. How low-cost automated MFCs let brands fight back against Instacart. Simbe Robotics adds new executives. Meta releases open source Llama 3 generative AI. Explore Tao Bin’s Thai next-gen vending machine business. New data suggest robots make jobs less meaningful for their flesh-based coworkers. Meet Speedy Eats’ autonomous drive-thrus.