Winthrop introduces food robots to deliver dining hall meals to students on campus

WINTHROP, S.C. (WBTV) - The future has rolled into Rock Hill.

Earlier this month, Winthrop University unveiled a new method to deliver dining service food straight to the front door of students on campus.

A fleet of 15 small KiwiBots were brought to the University over the summer so they could be programmed to learn every sidewalk and crosswalk in the campus’ layout.

Now, with a few taps on the school’s Everyday app, students can summon these robots and track their location as they deliver the food.

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This service aims to provide a cheaper and more direct alternative to other delivery services like DoorDash or GrubHub for Winthrop students. These robots are also more environmentally friendly.

“They are eco friendly, so they aren’t emitting anything toxic into the air,” Winthrop dining services marketing manager Roxy Flory said. “So that’s something that the University and Sodexo (dining services provider) really partner with, being good to the earth.”

The service requires a subscription to help lower the costs of delivery fees.

For a small school in South Carolina, Winthrop is now the first university in the southeast to deploy this kind of technology on campus. There are approximately 50 other schools across the country that use KiwiBots to deliver food on campus.

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