How Do Starship Robots Affect Everyday Campus Life? An Exploratory Posting Board Analysis and Interview-Based Study

The rapid emergence of food delivery robots in public spaces has raised important questions regarding public perceptions and policy creation. One method for addressing these questions is examining the relationship between delivery robots and the communities they already serve. We assessed our university community’s experiences with, and perceptions of, the Starship Technologies robots (robots that currently operate on campus) using two efforts: analysis of online posting board content related to the robots and interviews of campus community members about the robots. Perspectives captured in the online post analysis tended to be negative, while views tended to be positive in the interview results. At the same time, both results showed differing opinions and complexity; one tension that emerged in both efforts, for example, is the potential of the robots to both benefit and impede disability communities on campus. Further, there were fundamental misunderstandings about what data the robots can and do record. This research can help to inform roboticists and policymakers whose work relates to autonomous robots in public spaces.