Humans and robots coping with crisis – Starship, Covid-19 and urban robotics in an unpredictable world

In 2018 "Starship" grocery delivery robots were first introduced in Milton Keynes (MK), a new town in England, to automate a task that is difficult to perform in a cost-effective manner by humans – that of on-demand grocery delivery. Two years later the Covid-19 pandemic rendered routine activities such as delivering groceries or visiting the supermarket unexpectedly unsafe. The ability of robots to operate in environments that are dangerous for humans was brought into sharp relief by the Covid-19 pandemic but it may also be relevant in other crisis situations such as those that may be caused by heat waves, blizzards and other extreme events associated with climate change. Drawing on a case study of Starship robots in MK, this contribution investigates the potential of robotic and autonomous systems to provide cities with tools for coping with such unexpected situations.