Who Comes to the Rescue of Stranded Robots? Humans

Fannie Osran just had to help. Last semester, the student at the University of California, Berkeley, came upon a food-delivery robot, one of 120 deployed around campus by a local startup, in front of a long flight of stairs. The cooler-sized robot can’t navigate stairs, so it immediately backed up into a plant bed—where it got stuck in some mud.

Ms. Osran, who was by herself, told it, “You’re so pathetic.” She lifted the robot back onto the sidewalk, and it flashed heart eyes at her on its digital display as it rolled off, she said.

Robotics companies are jumping into food delivery, testing out different models in limited areas. While people fear that robots will someday take over everyone’s jobs—and maybe even the world—for now, the prototypes can run into trouble just getting a burger and fries to a dorm.

The imperfect autonomous technology often leads robots into a comedy of errors as they try to navigate public spaces—compelling softhearted humans to come to their rescue.

A Kiwi robot stuck in Berkeley, Calif.

Kiwi Campus, which is behind the robots at UC Berkeley, is taking human perception into account in its designs. A digital “face” display can offer winks and other expressions. The robots start at local partner eateries, where humans pack in the food, then weave down sidewalks and through crosswalks to their destination, using technology similar to that being tested in self-driving cars.

“There’s no one protecting them,” Ms. Osran said. Still, they’ve become a part of campus culture, she added, and many students pause to take selfies with them. On Halloween, Kiwi employees dressed some of the robots in zombie costumes, adding to the cuteness factor.

Then again, a few months ago, student Joshua Han recorded a video of a man off campus hurling one into a bush. Student Catherine Lopez said she saw a man on campus pick up a Kiwi and slam it on its side. “I felt so sad for it,” she said.

San Francisco-based Starship Technologies has been experimenting with more than 50 food delivery robots in Milton Keynes, England, since October. Rachel Millard, a local nurse, said neighbors post on community social-media pages about “bots in distress.” She said residents have warded off bullies who tip over the robots, which resemble breadmakers on wheels.

“When a couple got stuck in the snow, people were worried about them,” she said. “The children love them.”

Rachel Millard’s daughter waves to a Starship Technologies robot in Milton Keynes.

Starship, founded in 2014, has had another 25 wheeled robots at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., since January. Freshman Victoria Sillo once came across four robots facing each other. Each time one started to move, it immediately jerked to a stop.

She didn’t think she was strong enough to move one—in another incident, it took two of her friends to lift one out of the mud. “I didn’t stick around to see how they sorted it out,” she said.

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As the competition among automated delivery services heats up, robot makers see winning over love from pedestrians—and local officials—as paramount to helping expand into communities and ease potential regulations.

Kiwi CEO Felipe Chavez removed bulky navigation laser sensors because he said they made the robots look like threatening “super robots.”

Starship CEO Lex Bayer said his team considered dozens of potentially friendly designs—including bodies shaped like a mailbox and a cylindrical rice-cooker—before landing on its current rectangular design.

George Mason University students pose with a robot.

Company researchers also staged stuck robots in public, then hid in nearby restaurants and office buildings to see if anyone helped, according to Markus Zimmerman n, who heads a team at Starship focused on improving human-robot interactions. The researchers found people helped the robots more often when they emitted audible signals for help.

After trying out different voices and R2D2-style bleeps and bloops, they settled on a human-sounding voice for their current model, which says phrases such as, “Hello, here’s your delivery,” though it doesn’t call for help.

Robby Technologies, a Silicon Valley startup, is testing out rolling delivery robots at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., that are meant to resemble a small pet walking down the street. CEO Rui Li said the robots are capable of “enhanced human-robot interaction,” such as saying “excuse me” and “thank you.”

Boston Dynamics, a robotics firm in Massachusetts that has received research funding from the Defense Department, isn’t going for cuteness with its model for a robot that could be used for deliveries and other applications. Called Spot, it has four hydraulic legs that make sharp thrusting movements.

U.S. Marines and Boston Dynamics representatives looked at Spot, a four-legged robot designed for indoor and outdoor operation, including in response to natural and man-made disasters—or for deliveries.

Oregon-based Agility Robotics builds walking robots that could be used for delivery. They resemble a headless person. “We don’t aspire to be cute. We’re definitely not going down that road,” CEO Damion Shelton said, noting that cute rolling robots can’t handle obstacles like stairs.

Back at UC Berkeley, senior Alex Chen was at the student union in December when a Kiwi robot spontaneously combusted outside. (The culprit was a defective lithium ion battery, the company said.) Mr. Chen grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and darted out to hose down the robot, which was engulfed in flames.

“I learned that in Boy Scouts,” he said.

That night, students held a candlelight vigil for the charred robot.

Mr. Chavez, Kiwi’s CEO, was there. He said about 60 people gathered to place candles where the fire had occurred, and he thought to himself, “Wow, is this actually happening?”