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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Refraction AI

Refraction AI Launches Robotic Delivery Service in Austin, Texas

Refraction AI announced today that it is expanding its delivery robot service outside of Michigan and into Austin, Texas. This is the second location for Refraction’s robots, which will offer restaurant delivery in the South Congress, Downtown and Travis Heights neighborhoods.

Refraction is a little different from other robot delivery players in the space. Unlike Kiwibot or Starship, which make cooler-sized sidewalk robots, Refraction’s REV-1 robot is bigger, faster, and meant to drive in city bike lanes. The REV-1 is meant for suburban areas with a sizeable population in a relatively contained geography. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Refraction originated, the REV-1 has a delivery radius of roughly 3.5 miles.

That Refraction chose Austin as its second location is really not a surprise. Though the company was founded in Michigan, Luke Schneider, who was brought in as Refraction CEO last fall, is based in Austin, TX. When Refraction raised $4.2 million earlier this year, Schneider told me that part of that money would go towards building up operations in Austin.

Southside Flying Pizza will be the first restaurant offering Refraction’s robot delivery option. The Austin pilot will debut with a fleet of 10 robots with the possibility of more being added as more restaurant partners join the program. Customers in the service area will place orders directly through participating restaurants and choose robot delivery. Text messages are sent to the customer with delivery updates, notification when the robot arrives and a unique code to unlock the robot.

Worth noting is that in the press release announcing the Austin expansion, Refraction only mentions restaurant partners at launch and not grocery delivery. With its rather sizeable cargo hold, groceries are a good fit for the REV-1, and during the pandemic last year Refraction quickly added grocery delivery in Ann Arbor as people looked for contactless ways to get their food. I presume we’ll see grocery partners added to the list should REV-1’s delivery catch on with consumers.

Refraction AI Raises $4.2M for its Three-Wheeled Robot Delivery

Robot delivery company Refraction AI announced today that it has raised $4.2 million in new seed funding. The round was led by Pillar VC, with participation from eLab Ventures, Osage Venture Partners, Trucks Venture Capital, Alumni Ventures Group, Chad Laurans (founder of SimpliSafe), Invest Michigan, and others.

Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Refraction’s take on delivery robots is between smaller rovers like those from Starship and larger autonomous vehicles like Nuro‘s. Refraction’s REV-1 robots have three wheels, are ruggedized for inclement weather, and are fast enough to travel in bike lanes.

Refraction debuted the REV-1 back in July of 2019, and started making limited lunch deliveries from Ann Arbor restaurants in December of that year. In June of 2020, right after the pandemic’s first big wave in the U.S., Refraction launched its grocery delivery service.

We’re still early into the new year, but 2021 is already been a pretty active year for delivery robots. A number of startups around the world like Ottonomy, Delivers AI and Bizero have come out of stealth. Last week Safeway announced it was piloting the use of Tortoise’s teleoperated robots for grocery delivery. And Kiwibot will be making making deliveries in Santa Monica, California as part of that city’s zero emission delivery zone.

Luke Schneider, CEO of Refraction, told me by phone last week that the company will use its new capital to start scaling up the business. Refraction currently has 25 robots in operation around Ann Arbor. Schneider said that Refraction will be adding to its fleet and doing more deliveries, and will expand either to different cities or into different retail sectors. He also said that the company will also hire more people to expand the team, and build up operations in Austin, Texas where Schneider is located (though manufacturing will remain in Michigan).

Refraction AI Officially Launches Robot Grocery Delivery in Ann Arbor, MI

Refraction AI, which makes the three-wheeled autonomous REV-1 delivery vehicle, announced today that it is expanding beyond restaurant meals and into grocery delivery.

The company’s robots are delivering around a three-mile radius in Ann Arbor, MI, and today’s announcement is basically an official unveiling of a program that the company has been testing for months.

If you are in the Ann Arbor delivery and want to check out the delivery service, visit this site that Refraction has created. The company is working with a local grocer called The Produce Station, and it looks like the process is a little kludgey right now. Customers need to visit Produce Station’s Mercato store to see what items are available, and then manually enter the items they want into special form on Refraction’s site. The robot is then dispacted to the store where staffers pack the items into the vehicle before it drivers itself to the delivery location.

It’s understandable that Refraction’s process might not be the smoothest. After all, the company is in the robot business, not the e-commerce business. But it makes me wonder how how the company will connect consumers and robots as it grows beyond Ann Arbor? Will restaurants and grocers have their own REV-1s running back and forth? Or will a third-party delivery service like DoorDash have a fleet of them deployed to make deliveries? Or will it be a combination of both?

Autonomous robot deliveries are attracting more attention during this COVID-19 pandemic as they can reduce human-to-human interactions and, hopefully, human-to-human viral transmission.

Refraction’s REV-1 is a Goldilocks robot, in that its size is right in between the small cooler-sized rover bots of Starship and the big pod-like vehicles of Nuro. This sweet spot of a size, plus the REV-1’s ability to handle inclement weather was one of the reasons we named Refraction AI to our 2020 Food Tech 25 list of innovative companies.

Refraction’s “Goldilocks” Size Could Make it Pretty Great for Robot Grocery Delivery

Contactless delivery as a concept, didn’t exist prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The phrase describes the way of delivering food and other goods without humans having to interact with or touch one another.

Delivery robots hold the promise of taking contactless delivery one step further, by removing humans from the equation altogether. Over in Ann Arbor, MI, Refraction.ai launched its robot fleet for restaurant lunch delivery earlier this year, and this month started piloting a grocery delivery service.

Refraction builds the REV-1, an autonomous three-wheeled delivery robot that is ruggedized so that it can handle inclement weather. The company has eight robots rolling through a 3.5 mile radius around Ann Arbor right now making deliveries , with another 15 robots being manufactured.

I first came across Refraction’s grocery work in a WIRED article about the delivery fees Refraction was charging. So I hopped on the phone with Refraction Co-Founder, Ram Vasudevan, to find out more about its grocery program and catch up with the company.

According to Vasudevan, Refraction has partnered with a local grocery store called the Produce Station and has another grocery partner coming online soon. The program is currently being tested and is not yet open to the public, but for now, customers are directed to a special website created by Refraction where they can shop online for food items just as they would from any retailer. A robot is dispatched to the store where a worker there packs it with the order (a REV-1 can hold six grocery bags). The robot is then sent off to the house for delivery with a text message alerting the shopper when the robot has arrived.

The Refraction robot isn’t completely contactless, however. Recipients still need to touch the robot to unlock it, something Vasudevan says the company is working on. Refraction is also looking to add UV lights to the cargo cavity to help with sanitization.

Refraction isn’t the only company that is doing robotic food delivery. Starship’s cooler-sized robots have been doing grocery delivery in Milton Keynes, England, and are now doing restaurant delivery in U.S. cities like Tempe, AZ and Fairfax, VA. And Nuro was given the greenlight by California to start testing its autonomous pod vehicles, which about half the size of a regular car, for deliveries as well.

But one advantage Refraction’s robot may have is its “Goldilocks”-like size. It stands five feet tall and is narrow enough to travel in the bike lanes on roads . This could potentially make it more friendly to city regulators who don’t want their sidewalks clogged with robots. It could also prove more attractive than a pod, because the robot can skooch off to the side to make way for traffic, and have an easier time finding enough space to park.

Vasudevan said that Refraction was “overwhelmed” with interest from restaurants when it launched that delivery option earlier this year. As the company moves past the testing phase, it’s going to have quite a bit of contact with grocers as well.

Refraction Launches Robotic Lunch Delivery in Ann Arbor, MI

Given that we’ve already seen Refraction AI‘s REV-1 autonomous delivery vehicle tackle the snow covered roads of Ann Arbor, MI, it’s not really a surprise that the company announced today — in the middle of December — that it will start delivering lunches to people who don’t want to brave the cold.

Refraction will now provide food delivery for customers within a 2.5 mile zone. Local restaurants Miss Kim, Belly Deli, Tios Mexican Cafe and Chow ow Asian Street Food are participating. To sign up for the service, hungry people can fill out this form, after which they will receive instructions on how to place their order. Once done, they will receive a unique code and delivery updates. When the self-driving REV-1 arrives outside the destination, the customer is notified to meet the robot at the curb and enter the unique code to grab their food.

Normally we wouldn’t cover such a local story, but this is the first delivery partner announcement from Refraction since the company launched this past summer. Additionally, the REV-1 is different from other autonomous delivery vehicles that are starting to come to market.

The REV-1 is a three-wheeled robot sits somewhere between the bigger pod-like autonomous vehicles Nuro makes and the smaller, cooler sized robots from Starship and Kiwi. This “Goldilocks” type size means it can travel in a road’s bike lane, making it an compelling mode of delivery for both urban and suburban areas.

Plus, as noted above, the REV-1 was built to be rugged and able to travel in inclement weather. As we wrote previously:

First is the environmental scanning provided by a 12-camera setup as well as ultrasound and radar sensors on the REV-1. To make the robot less expensive, the REV-1 foregoes the LIDAR systems popular with other autonomous robots. And according to Johnson-Roberson, Refraction AI’s camera rig also allows the robot to track things not on the ground like buildings and cars to navigate even when road lines are not visible. The other way the REV-1 takes on bad weather is rather low tech. “We’re using fat bike tires a low PSI so they are squishy,” said Johnson-Roberson. “They can run in snow and rain.”

Robots are (slowly) moving from the testing phase to the market stage. Nuro just announced this week that it will be testing grocery delivery with Walmart in Houston. Postmates’ Serve is scurrying around making deliveries in Los Angeles. Starship’s robots are now roaming around multiple college campuses across the country. Kiwi announced its own reinvention last week.

Ultimately, food delivery from restaurants and grocery stores will require a number of different styles of vehicles. With its unique shape, the REV-1 looks like its ready to carve out its own (bike) lane.

How Will Winter Affect Autonomous Delivery Robots? Snow Problem!

A lot of work in autonomous robots is done in places like Scottsdale, Houston and the Bay Area. What places like Scottsdale, Houston and the Bay Area have in common is that they have mild-to-nonexistant winters. But up north in Michigan and Wisconsin, where it’s already snowing, autonomous delivery bots from Refraction AI and Starship are being put to the test.

Refraction is based out of Ann Arbor, MI, and it’s three-wheeled REV-1 robot has been designed to travel in bad weather. As we wrote around the time of its launch:

…Refraction AI combines software and hardware to battle bad weather. First is the environmental scanning provided by a 12-camera setup as well as ultrasound and radar sensors on the REV-1. To make the robot less expensive, the REV-1 foregoes the LIDAR systems popular with other autonomous robots. And according to Johnson-Roberson, Refraction AI’s camera rig also allows the robot to track things not on the ground like buildings and cars to navigate even when road lines are not visible. The other way the REV-1 takes on bad weather is rather low tech. “We’re using fat bike tires a low PSI so they are squishy,” said Johnson-Roberson. “They can run in snow and rain.”

But it’s one thing to describe how a robot will work in inclement weather; it’s another to see it in action. Thankfully, the folks at Refraction shot a video of its robot on a snow-covered road a couple of weeks back and shared it with The Spoon. Check it out:

Refraction.AI’s REV-1 (Pity the cyclist following it)

While that video doesn’t show it taking turns or hills, or having to deal with traffic, it certainly looks like the REV-1 can handle slushy conditions. Which is actually good news all around. Barring the arrival of a blizzard, hungry folks can order meals for delivery guilt-free because they aren’t forcing someone to drive or ride in the snow, and restaurants can still earn delivery revenue when the weather turns.

Elsewhere in the midwest, the students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are just now learning whether or not that town’s snowy weather will keep the newly arrived Starship robots from making food deliveries. The Wisconsin State Journal’s Just Ask Us section fielded this question this week: Will UW-Madison’s food delivery robots get stuck in the snow?

The answer was pretty straightforward and filled with the type of common sense you’d expect from a Midwesterner:

On days when there are blizzards or icy conditions that would make the sidewalks unnavigable for people, the delivery robots will not operate. When students go on the app to order food, it would show that the marketplaces are closed

A spokesperson for the university goes on to say that since the robots were designed with a low-profile and traction tires that could handle Estonian weather, they should be able to handle a Wisconsin winter. (If you go to UWM, send us a photo or video of the robot in snowy action).

The weather outside may be frightful, but putting robots through these harsh weather paces means that they’ll be available in more places beyond Houston, Phoenix and the Bay Area in the near future.

Squishy Tires and Delivery Sweet Spots: More on Refraction AI’s Three-Wheeled Delivery Bot

When Refraction AI came out of stealth a couple weeks back, the company provided a fair amount of detail about its REV-1 autonomous delivery robot. The REV-1 has three wheels, can ride in a bike lane and ditched LIDAR in favor of on-board cameras for its navigation.

But we still had a few questions about Refraction AI’s robot and its approach to autonomous delivery, so I got on the phone with Refraction co-founder and CEO Matthew Johnson-Roberson this week to find out more.

One of the REV-1 launch’s biggest messages was that the robot was built to handle more inclement weather, but early coverage didn’t spell out exactly how. Right now a lot of autonomous vehicle testing happens in sunny places like Phoenix, Houston and the Bay Area. Clear skies and lots of light make it easier for robots to “see” things like lines on the road as they navigate.

Johnson-Roberson said that Refraction AI combines software and hardware to battle bad weather. First is the environmental scanning provided by a 12-camera setup as well as ultrasound and radar sensors on the REV-1. To make the robot less expensive, the REV-1 foregoes the LIDAR systems popular with other autonomous robots. And according to Johnson-Roberson, Refraction AI’s camera rig also allows the robot to track things not on the ground like buildings and cars to navigate even when road lines are not visible. The other way the REV-1 takes on bad weather is rather low tech. “We’re using fat bike tires a low PSI so they are squishy,” said Johnson-Roberson. “They can run in snow and rain.”

While the REV-1 is autonomous, there are still human tele-operators who can take over should the vehicle get stuck at, say, a complex intersection with a mix of cars and pedestrians.

The REV-1 is about the same size and speed as a bike, making its form factor kind of like a Goldilocks. It’s not big, like a full-sized car, and not small, like a rover robot. But that means it is free from the limitations of those other form factors. Full-sized self-driving cars may go faster and farther, but they also require a safety driver on-board, which pushes up the price of operation. Rover bots are cheaper, but they are slower and can’t hold as much food.

So what is the best environment for this in-between vehicle?

“Suburban LA is not a good idea,” said Johnson-Roberson, “We can go half a mile to 2.5 miles. That’s the sweet spot for what we’re trying to do.” So more dense urban areas are better for the REV-1. Refraction AI is eyeing Boston, Madison, WI and Austin, TX as potential rollout cities.

Right now, the company is working with two restaurants in the Ann Arbor, Mich. area. Johnson-Roberson didn’t provide many details about business models, but said that as the company expands, it will work directly with restaurants, providing them REV-1s and charging a per-delivery fee that “Is better than [what] Uber Eats is charging.”

Once a restaurant gets an order, it will use a tablet provided by Refraction to tell the REV-1 where to go. A code is texted to the customer who uses it to unlock the REV-1 when it arrives with the food.

While it’s working directly with restaurants right now, Johnson-Roberson said that his company is open to working with third-party delivery services.

Refraction AI is definitely a company to watch in the emerging delivery space. Self-driving delivery isn’t a zero sum game, but the REV-1’s unique form factor should make it appealing because of its combination of size and speed.