Cute Little Robots Will Be Delivering Food Around UMaine This Fall

I worked in college kitchens, once upon a time...

Back in my days before radio, I worked in kitchens. That's no real secret. However, probably my favorite kitchen job ever, was when I worked at Southern Maine Community College, in their dining hall. It was a great gig. It was right on the ocean, so I just stared out at Casco Bay while I cooked every day, and I had summers off. It was amazing.

But even just a dozen years ago, if you'd told me that robots would be running all over campus delivering food, I'd think you were nuts. But foodservice giant Sodexo, who handles foodservice duties at SMCC, brought the little robots to that campus last year. Now, since Sodexo took over the same duties at the University of Maine in Orono, those same little robots will be showing up this fall.

Some days, life really does feel like The Jetsons.

This fall on the UMaine campus, these little delivery robots, called Kiwibots, will be whizzing around bringing food to people who've signed up for the delivery program. They have built in GPS, and 360 degree cameras that will keep them going in the right direction. For some time, the routes have been mapped out and now are ready to roll.

According to Fox 22, there's an app students and employees can access and they'll be able to schedule an order/delivery to anywhere on the campus. These little food buggies are even equipped to deal with our weather up here. Although, I'll be bummed if that thing's better in snow than my car.

There will be five of the mini food trucks roaming about and will be operational by the end of August. If you're headed to school in Orono this fall and want to know more about the program, you can read all about it here. Now if I can just get them to come where I am... This video explains everything pretty well:

I love it when people who eat Vegemite make fun of our food...