The robots use artificial intelligence and machine learning to travel and navigate

UK supermarket Co-op has expanded its use of Starship Technologies’ autonomous home delivery robots to the town of Northampton. More deployments are expected in additional towns and cities soon.

Northampton is the Co-op’s second Starship robot delivery location after Milton Keynes, where the service launched in 2018 and is available from eight stores. The retailer plans to use up to 300 of Starship’s robots in the UK by the end of 2021.

The robots in Northampton will serve around 5,000 households with contactless deliveries from the Co-op food store in Wootton Fields initially. The delivery devices will travel up to three miles from the shop, with bookings made through the Starship Food Delivery app.

The battery-powered robots use a combination of sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning to travel on pavements and navigate around any obstacles. Computer vision-based navigation helps the robots to map their environment to the nearest inch.

Like many other retailers, Co-op has ramped up its online offer to meet demand, particularly during the pandemic. It aims to offer online home delivery and click and collect, through its own site and with partners, at over 1,000 stores by the end of this year. This is up from the 650 it had originally planned.

The company says it sees its stores as “micro distribution hubs”, with orders picked from local Co-op stores so high street stores benefit from any increase in online demand.

Starship Technologies’ robots have completed over 500,000 commercial autonomous deliveries in local neighbourhoods and university campuses across five countries, travelling over one million autonomous miles in total, the company said. A statement added that delivery numbers for Co-op products have tripled in Milton Keynes during the Covid-19 crisis.