Grab Will Have a Robot to Collect Food at Paya Lebar Quarter Next Month

Imagine taking a leisurely stroll through your neighbourhood mall, bubble tea in hand, when suddenly a stout little robot whizzes past you, filled to the brim with food. 

You squint at the sight, wondering if you’re seeing things. 

Well, this could very well be an everyday occurrence in the future, as Grab is going to be trialling robot runners to help with food delivery services.

Here’s all that you need to know. 

Grab Will Have a Robot to Collect Food at Paya Lebar Quarter Next Month

Grab will be piloting an indoor robot runner service at the Paya Lebar Quarter (PLQ) Mall from the second week of June onwards. 

This pilot test is slated to last for a month. After the pilot, Grab will assess the performance of the robot runner as well as its viability before implementing this service in other areas. 

The robot runner is designed in partnership with Techmetics Robotics. 

Here’s how it works: it will compile orders from several restaurants and eateries within the mall before proceeding to hand them over to deliverymen at a designated collection point. 

The orders will then be sent to their respective locations by the deliverymen. 

The robot runner is expected to serve up to 35 GrabFood and GrabMart merchants in basement two of PLQ Mall. It is also expected to deliver around more than 250 orders every day. 

A Grab runner will guide the robot on its ideal route, in the beginning, to allow the robot runner to learn with efficiency, as well as to adapt to its surroundings. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be employed to enable the robot runner to learn about its surroundings. 

There are also safety features embedded within the robot that allows it to sense incoming obstacles and ensure food safety and hygiene amid the process of delivery. 

According to Grab, the robot is likely to be able to save five to fifteen minutes of delivery partners’ time.

This time is usually spent navigating shopping malls and collecting orders directly from specific restaurants and eateries. 

Last year, Grab implemented a mix-and-match feature in several malls which allowed customers to order from different restaurants in the same mall while paying only one delivery fee in total. 

This system was well received by customers, but with the rise in such orders, delivery partners require more time to find multiple different restaurants amid crowds of shoppers. 

Hence, this robot runner service will help to shorten the overall delivery time, possibly allowing for delivery partners to clear more orders in a day.

Featured Image: Grab