Your next meal at the airport can be delivered by robot

Robot delivery has long been touted as a breakthrough technology of the future. However, he still hasn't cracked the big moment. Drones still aren't dropping packages into our gutters by accident, and our pizzas aren't being brought to us by self-driving cars.

That's not to say capable minds aren't working on the problem. In one case, a group of engineers are working on a robot that will take on the crucial task of delivering food to hungry travelers at the airport.

Eating at the airport can be a bit of a dice roll. Seating is usually limited, with thousands upon thousands passing by each day. Even if you arrive at the airport early, you may find it difficult to find a place to sit down and eat. Arrive late or get a bad security line, and you might not have time to order food before you have to walk to your door. Airports are usually large, sprawling complexes, and the food outlet you want may be on the opposite side of the building from where you board your plane.

Robotic delivery could potentially solve these problems by delivering food directly to passengers at the gate. This is the problem that the robotics start-up Ottonomy set out to solve, in partnership with the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport.

In the crowded indoor environment of an airport, GPS and other satellite constellations are simply not usable for navigation. Instead, Ottonomy's Ottobot relies on lidar, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles and find its way through the environment. The company has created proprietary indoor environment mapping software to provide its robots with the 3D map needed to navigate their workspace.

Airports can be extremely crowded, and early on the team found that navigating these situations was difficult. This led to Ottobot's current setup, in which each wheel is motorized and able to steer. This allows the robot to crab sideways, execute a zero-radius turn, or swerve tightly around turns, both of which are useful for getting around tight spaces. The transmission was inspired by electric wheelchairs. Much like a power wheelchair, the Ottobot needs a tight turning radius and the ability to handle bumps, bumps and curbs, sometimes.

Several compartments on the bot are used to store various items that a customer might order. As is becoming common in food delivery, this would allow the necessary separation of cold drinks and hot food, for example. The Ottobot is also able to raise and lower its ride height. This may seem like a curious feature, but it helps the bot serve more customers. The robot can lower to allow a child to take an order, or raise to help a customer who cannot bend over easily. Notably, the company has kept the cabin design modular so that it can be customized by end users to fit different delivery roles.

As with most autonomous systems humans have ever built, there is always a risk that things will go wrong. In the event that an Ottobot cannot figure out where it is or where it is going, staff can take control to get the robot out of trouble. This feature is particularly useful if the robot finds itself in an unexpected situation. Robots also have a "How am I driving?" sticker on the back, which invites comments on the robots' performance.