Patrons of The Westin Buffalo look for any excuse to order items to their room, whether it’s adults taking advantage of New Balance workout gear deliveries or kids clamoring for a toothbrush. Even an extra pillow delivery hasn’t provided this much intrigue before, as the Westin’s robot, Chip—so dubbed for a tech-sounding name at a hotel located at the corner of Delaware Avenue and West Chippewa Street—delivers all these goods to the delight of patrons.
“Everybody stops and asks about him and will eventually check into their room and think of a reason to have a delivery,” said Russ Papia, The Westin Buffalo director of sales. “He has created quite a bit of buzz.”
The first robot in a hotel in New York and the first for the Westin chain started delivering everything from clothing to cocktails in December. Staff loads the amenity into the robot and then programs his destination, all from his visible front-desk home. He maneuvers hallways and elevators steering clear of guests—and walls—and then makes a call to the room, waiting outside. Guests simply open their door, open the robot’s lid and grab their item.
With hotel owners, Delaware North, poised on the edge of the latest technology, Papia said Chip remains a novelty at this point to create a fun environment in the hotel.
Whether the Savioke-designed Relay model that roams the halls at the Westin or the Starship Technologies robots traversing through the streets of Washington, D.C., in a pilot program that started this spring delivering restaurant takeout via a Postmates program, the idea of using robots for any delivery model has started to grow wheels.
And that opens up possibilities for everything from convention centers to stadiums.
“I could see this working anywhere where there is any type of delivery aspect,” Papia said. “I could see him buzzing around a lot of different venues.”
As industrial robotic interest continues to grow, as much as by 29 percent annually through 2019 in the food and beverage sector alone, according to a Zion Research report, companies catering to the large industrial players will continue to modernize and perfect robot delivery technology, further leading to the potential for a trickle-down of more applications.
If Chip can handle the halls and elevators of a hotel, we’re already at the point where robots could deliver inside sports and entertainment venues, at least inside premium spaces where foot traffic isn’t as challenging and venue operators search for the latest technology to set them apart from competition.
And if robots can deliver takeout from a restaurant to your doorstep in Washington, D.C., it isn’t a leap to expect them to also deliver food—or other items—across convention center floors, through back halls or from the kitchen to the dining hall.
Beyond deliveries, robots have another opportunity within venues. IBM hinted as much as the 2016 U.S. Open tennis event at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, New York City, where IBM worked to push its new tournament app with Watson-driven cognitive reasoning that could point fans to the shortest restroom line or the nearest smoothie concoction. To promote the app, IBM ushered a robot, Pepper, into the media halls to give a form to the working of the app.
While Pepper never made its way outside to help patrons roaming the grounds, it had the ability to do so, putting robots—whether food delivery or concierge service—just one step away from sports and entertainment venues.
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