Dutch grocery giant Albert Heijn is trialling the use of food delivery robots on the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven.
The Aitonomi robot will deliver goods on working days between 15 and 26 July, with customers able to place orders at the AH to go store.
Albert Heijn employees load the order into the robot. The robot is developed by Swiss start-up TeleRetail and is equipped with sensors to avoid obstacles, using a virtual map to find its way.
Albert Heijn initially announced the trial back in March.
Previously the grocer has worked with Deliveroo to offer half-hour deliveries in Amsterdam. The service, called Allerhande Kookt, will allow customers to receive meals from the grocer’s online recipe database within half an hour. The meals will be cooked by a team of chefs in Amsterdam West.
The Co-op is another retailer using delivery robots. Since April 2018 the UK convenience retailer has been operating a trial of delivery robots in Milton Keynes that saw over 15,000 grocery deliveries being completed by the end of April 2019.
Customers place the orders through the Starship app, with a flat charge of £1 per delivery and no minimum order charge. The order is picked by a staff member in the store and handed to the robot, with customers able to choose from a range of around 700 products or a quarter of the Co-op’s range. They can then track the journey using the app.
