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All right, we're gonna invite our next guest up in its Ritukar Vijay from Ottonomy Inc.. So tell us about your project, or your or your product. Excuse me.

Yeah. Hi. So it's wonderful to be here. First of all, thanks, Geek News Central. Alright, so we are providing contactless deliveries using autonomous robots. And we started last year. And right now we are the world's first to do autonomous deliveries at airports. And we are live at CVG International Airport, Cincinnati. So if you happened to travel to Cincinnati, you can always you know, order online, and the food will be delivered to you at your departure gate by these robots.

Oh, that's interesting. So you order your food, it's prepared wherever you've ordered it from, they put it in a robot and it rolls to your gate and delivers it to your gate.

Absolutely. The most important thing is that these robots are completely autonomous from day one. So there's no teleoperation, it's fully autonomous. And we can do both indoor and outdoor, you know, navigation with the same tech stack.

So I'm kind of curious when they're autonomous from the very beginning, obviously, there's some pre planning that has to go into place, mapping, and all that. Do you have additional support for the robots when they're driving? Do they have sensors to show that they're on or on track? Or their you know, what is? How do they know where they are?

So it's very interesting question. So we do not require any infrastructural change into the overall system, we move the robot once in the particular setting, and it maps it and localizes within that. Now, the interesting thing is, we use both 3D Lidar and multiple bunch of cameras to create a geometric and contextual map of the entire environment. So it doesn't really matter whether we are indoors or outdoors, we localize and navigate within that particular map so that's how it is. Most of the delivery robotics companies, they use GPS as a reference point for their positioning.

Sure.

We don't use that. And that's the reason why we are the only ones to do both indoor and outdoor autonomous navigation seamlessly.

So how much you know? Whenever I hear about this, though, there has to be some you say you drive it once. But if I'm going to get food from McDonald's to gate 17, you got to know where McDonald's is at.

Absolutely. So we map the whole, you know, airport once.

Yeah.

And once the concourse of the particular terminal is map, we know where things are. So we.

So then it's tied into an I'm assuming an app. Who? What app are you actually utilizing to facilitate the food ordering, delivery, and location?

So that's an interesting thing, because we partner with your app providers like ordering, ordering apps, and also POS systems. So currently at CVG International Airport, we are partnered with Crave Up app, which is based out of LA, and for a couple of other restaurants, automating their curbside deliveries. We have partnered with Presto, which was a technology company. Recently we got, you know, listed using , spotless back, you know, instrument,

Right. So when the robot is making the delivery, I'm assuming the end, the person put the order in has some sort of past code to put in to get it into the device to get his delivery? Or does it know the app, this is the person I'm delivering to and open up automatically?

So you know, you're right, you know, the company was born in minutes of pandemic, so we wanted no touch show, you know, putting up a PIN code is a touch thing right.

Yeah.

So when a person place places an order, there's a unique order ID which is generated. We generate a QR code based on that. And that QR code stays with the staff.

Okay.

And the customer.

Gotcha.

Staff uses that, you know, QR code scanning, to put the items in, and the customer uses the QR code for, you know, retrieving the item. So they don't have to touch anything.

How many deliveries can the robot? Is it just one to one or can they do one too many with the robot?

So we have two compartments, two separate compartments, and two specific doors on the robot itself. So two deliveries per trip is something which we can do at this point.

So in your test case out of or not a test case, but this usage out of Cleveland, then what have you seen the usage rate be? People using it quite a bit or?

It is increasing. So we had, you know, relicensed last 25 30 days now. And it's almost 400 or you know, all deliveries already done.

Yep.

So usage is picking up. And the interesting thing is, you know, different types of users, like the different persona of people, are using the app order and they're so excited to get things done, you know.

All right

To be delivered by a robot.

So oftentimes airports can be pretty crazy. Yeah, I've run from gates to gates, the last thing I want to do is run over a robot. So how do you? I'm sure there's a flag or something? How do you keep the robot from interfering with normal traffic in the airport?

So there are a lot of robotic companies, which are like, small robots below your knee.

Yeah.

There's always a risk of tipping over.

Sure.

And apart from running, people are engaged on their phone.

Yeah.

so that's also a risk. So our robots are up to the waist height a regular person so that is higher.

Yeah.

And that's what the capacity is also larger. So you can't miss out on these robots. And at the same time, the robot has a, you know, big front screen and, you know, part of verbal and nonverbal communication. So if you're upsetting the bad for, you know, for the robot, it is going to, you know, talk to you. You know, that's how the contextual information is used to autonomously navigate.

So what happens if someone has her suitcase parked there two or three? Does it navigate around the suitcase? Or does it ask you to move the suitcase?

It navigates around the suitcase.

Okay, awesome. So that's pretty interesting. So how's the reaction? I'm just kind of curious how the general public's reaction is to this.

So the general public is really excited. So you know, different type of users, even kids up to like, six to seven years old. You know, they love taking out things out of the robot. And, you know, the usage is increasing. So 400 orders like in last 20 to 25 days, it's a good number.

Yeah.

And interestingly, the app usage is, you know, whether people are ordering or not, that is something which is different. But our core focus is to deliver 100%. The number of orders received should be delivered. So that's something which is 100% autonomous.

Sure.

100% delivered. And so far, so good.

Well, that's awesome. Ottonomy.io within O.

Yes.

Ottonomy. What's the future here? I'm sure you here to show trying to garner up some business, what's the reaction man?

So interestingly, you know, we are automating the curbside deliveries, apart from the airport, which is bringing the items from inside the store to the parking lot.

Awesome.

So it is kind of reinventing or re, you know, giving a fresh look to the drive thru experience. Yeah, where people don't have to queue up while ordering, they can order online and still sit in the car, and the robots will get the items from point A to point B. And that is very, very important at this point in time, because the labor shortage is like killing it in states right now. So restaurants are, you know, actually welcoming such kind of, you know, any technology, which saves one extra labor.

You know, I think it's in my town, I live in a small town, and the fast food restaurants are decimated, they can't get help. But yet they have huge backup lines, people, you know, the basically the orders put in they it's not ready by the time you get to the window. So they're queuing people. And then they're having staff walk back and forth, walk back and forth, walk back and forth. And they'd probably they walk 10 miles a day back and forth. What is the speed? How fast is the robot? Because then, you know, is it moving at one mile per hour? Is it moving two? Do you have that flexibility to set that rate of speed?

So it, you know, decides automatically based on the context? Now, if it is like wide open, it can go up to five to 10 miles per hour.

Okay.

But if it is too crowded, it kind of slows down so that it, you know, doesn't affect people around.

Sure. Sure. Sure.

So that is the contextual navigation, which we use to moderate the speed and the behavior of the robots.

But if they had a dedicated robot lane, the robot could move pretty quickly then.

That's true. But our intent is not to change anything infrastructure, because why we are focusing on airports and curbside is because no regulation is on top of that. So we can scale nationwide compared to last mile delivery on the sidewalks or on roads, which is still like, you know, the nationwide regulations are still yet to come in, maybe two to three years.

Right. All right. Awesome. Well, there you go, folks, Ottonomy Inc., and is it ottonomy.io. I'm looking at your, your shirt.

That's the brand name ottonomy.io. And that's a website as well. So you can know more about Ottonomy at ottonomy.io.

Okay, it's O-T-T-O-N-O-M-Y-.io. So thanks for being here. Thanks for sharing exciting stuff and go to Cleveland, make sure you get the app and I would I don't like to claim that if I did, I would do it just for the novelty to try it.

Yeah, you should be you know, awarded for you know, Cincinnati tourism because we are asking people to fly down to Cincinnati to experience robots.

So what you need to do is have it here so we can order food and have it delivered because we don't get to leave and get to eat so it should be here at CES.

So next year at CES. We will have a couple of robots like that.

Oh. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.

TPN CES 2022 coverage is executive produced by Michele Mendez. Technical Directors are Kurt Corless and Adam Barker. Associate producers are Nancy Ertz and Maurice McCoy. Interviews are edited by Jo Mini. Hosts are Marlo Anderson, Todd Cochrane, Scott Ertz, Christopher Jordan, Daniele Mendez, and Allante Sparks. Las Vegas studio provided by HC Productions. Remote studio provided by PLUGHITZ Productions. This has been Tech Podcasts Network Production, copyright 2022.