Obviously robot pizza delivery boys are the future

18 Mar 2016

Domino’s remains the pioneering fast food delivery service when it comes to technology, it seems, with a new robot delivery boy joining the company’s armoury of delivery buttons and car ovens.

Called DRU (Domino’s Robotic Unit), the pizza company’s latest quirky project sees a robot kitted out with military tech, GPS navigation and hot and cold storage buzzing its way through the suburbs to deliver Hawaiians and Sizzlers to one and all.

Partnering up with Marathon Robotics in Australia (and clearing its plans with relevant traffic and planning authorities), Domino’s has a working prototype (below) which has apparently already delivered to customers in the wild.

Dominos robot

How does it work? Well, its navigation is based on LIDAR, which is the same network that autonomous cars are basing their production on. It’s also the same network that a researcher in Ireland hacked into pretty easily last year, so no worries there.

The robot can hit 20kph, has both a warm and cold storage area and, with the benefit of Google Maps and ever-hungry customers, could be doing part-time workers out of a job if it takes off.

It’s an Australia pilot for now, but Domino’s is apparently eyeing global partners to plan for a broader roll-out. According to Engadget, the delivery bots are on the way, hitting Australian stores over the next few months.

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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