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September 11 2023

How Colleges and Universities Can Integrate Robotic Automation into Daily Life

Crisp autumn air. Ah. Depending on where you live, this might be your current reality…or an aspirational fairytale. But whether it feels like fall or not, the things we associate with the season are back once again—like college and university campuses across the country bustling with the energy of a new academic year.

These days, more and more students are returning to campuses where exciting new robotic technology awaits them. Let’s take a look at what they might find, and how robots for various purposes are becoming useful additions to the college and university landscape.

Food Delivery

This is a biggie. The past few years have seen an explosion of interest in and deployment of food delivery robots on college campuses. It’s one of the most exciting and practical use cases for robots on campus for several reasons:

• College and university campuses tend to be large but also pedestrianized, making it difficult for delivery drivers to access all areas of the campus without resorting to walking. This is inefficient for both the driver and the customer. Delivery robots, on the other hand, are small and nimble enough to navigate campus areas inaccessible to cars.
• Student populations and the staff that teach and support them tend to be strongly interested in sustainability and other environmental issues. Battery-powered delivery robots give university communities a greener way to take advantage of food delivery services. They offer all the convenience of traditional delivery with a much lower carbon footprint.
• The robots are useful—and cool. Gen Z has grown up in a fully digital world, and views automation as a given in everything from hailing a ride to finding a soulmate. Thus, the presence of helpful delivery robots on campus, while still a slight novelty, also just makes sense. Why shouldn’t they be able to order some local ramen and have it delivered by a robot? It’s 2023, after all.

Cleaning

This is probably one of the smartest investments in robotic technology that educational facilities can make right now. Cleaning large stretches of flooring throughout multiple high-traffic buildings each day takes campus facilities and custodial staff an inordinate amount of time and effort. That’s because most commercial sweepers and scrubbers—even efficient, high-end ones—require a human operator to push or walk with the unit, even as the machine does the work. This repetitive, relatively low-skill task takes up vast amounts of time that custodial staff could spend doing higher-value and more detailed work.

Floor cleaning robots like CC1 and CC3 can automate this type of work, covering up to 20,000 sq ft of flooring per hour while cleaning to a very high standard. Automating tedious jobs like floor cleaning frees up an enormous amount of time for facilities and custodial staff. And because the robots are so efficient and labor saving, they often pay for themselves within a year or two by allowing educational institutions to do more with existing staff versus hiring additional custodians.

Foodservice

Not to be confused with the campus-wide food delivery robots discussed above, indoor robots for foodservice are less rugged, more interactive, and just as helpful. These types of robots are typically used by restaurants and catering businesses to greet and guide guests, run food to tables, and bus dishes. Of course, food running may not apply to traditional university dining halls, where the setup is generally cafeteria style, and students carry their own food to tables.

But colleges and universities of all sizes now also incorporate franchise and retail dining options on campus. Food running robots like BellaBoT can be useful for these types of foodservice outposts, which often operate with fewer staff and can be prone to crowding as customers wait around for their food to be ready. BellaBoT can help quell the crush by running orders to set locations as soon as they’re ready. And customers can relax knowing that the BoT will bring their food right to them. Plus, students and staff get a kick out of BellaBoT’s interactive cat-inspired face and audio prompts.

Even traditional cafeteria-style setups can benefit from robotic automation. We all know that students are supposed to take their trays, plates and cups to the self-bussing area as they leave the dining hall. But that doesn’t always happen. Plus, a static bussing station requires dining staff to routinely fetch heavy bus tubs full of dishes and take them back to the sanitation area for washing. Dining facilities could dramatically cut down staff time spent transporting bus tubs and encourage responsible disposal of used dishes with a purpose-built dish bussing robot like HolaBoT. HolaBoT can autonomously cruise seating areas, stopping at tables to allow diners to place used dishes directly into one of its four large bus tubs. When its circuit is complete, or when called back to its pre-set “home” base, the BoT will then deliver up to 120 lbs of dishes at a time directly to the sanitation area. Think of all the back strain prevented!

Sanitation and Disinfection

While Covid-19 is no longer the threat it once was, the world’s reckoning with it has made college administrators more aware than ever of the potential impacts of illness outbreaks on a campus community. Enhanced cleaning protocols, touchless technology, and hand sanitizer stations are all standard ways that colleges and universities continue to address health and safety on campus. But robotic technology can play a key role here too.

Autonomous disinfection robots like Puductor 2 and Bubblefish can sanitize communal spaces such as classrooms, indoor gathering areas, auditoriums, etc. The Puductor 2 uses medical-grade UV-C and ultrasonic dry mist to eliminate pathogens from the air and surfaces, while the BubbleFish is a smaller robot that uses a highly efficacious dry mist disinfectant to sanitize small and large spaces.

 

Even discounting concerns over transmissible viruses, this type of autonomous disinfection technology can be especially useful for gyms, locker rooms and other athletic facilities on a university campus. These types of environments have long been known to host a plethora of infectious microbes such as fungi and MRSA. Incorporating the routine, automated use of a disinfection robot in these settings can help keep student athletes safe and ensure a level of cleanliness that would take custodial staff much longer to complete using traditional “spray and wipe” methods.

Administration and University Relations

University campuses are busy and bustling, with a high need for items such as supplies and documents to be transported throughout the day. One way colleges and universities can cut down on staff making unnecessary trips is by using autonomous delivery robots like SwiftBoT and KettyBoT. SwiftBoT is a large-capacity enclosed courier robot capable of carrying up to 80 lbs at a time. It can be dispatched to different locations within buildings to fetch and deliver items.

KettyBoT is smaller but more interactive thanks to a large front LED screen that can be used to display videos, event information, or even advertising. In addition to light delivery, KettyBoT can also be used for visitor services, greeting and wayfinding.

And then there’s TemiBoT. This AI-powered virtuoso offers the latest in robotic hosting, guiding and interactive assistance using voice and facial recognition along with flexible, AI-driven learning. The BoT can be highly integrated with campus IT systems and operations, performing several types of administrative functions. TemiBoT can guide visitors to different areas of a building, assist with visitor/volunteer check-in, and answer questions, all in one place. The interactive display screen also allows school officials to provide live, remotely guided tours to VIPs and other guests.

A Natural Fit

Institutions of higher education are a natural fit for labor-saving robotic solutions. With an emphasis on innovation and equipping the next generation with skills for the future, colleges and universities are already dipping their toes into robot-enabled campuses. As service robots become more commonplace in all industries, don’t be surprised to see them fully integrated into campus ecosystems very soon.

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