Ottonomy has launched a contactless food delivery service with Los Angeles-based mobile ordering app, Crave, focusing on the restaurant and hospitality sectors. Ottonomy has been piloting both indoor and outdoor delivery in markets across the United States in multiple industries and sectors including airport and retail.

The company is aiming to address staffing shortages which have become a major biggest business challenge for the retail and restaurant industry. The new delivery service operates on a “RaaS” (Robots as a Service) model. Ottonomy claims that this provides a more economical, sustainable and scalable delivery option in comparison to traditional 3rd party delivery services.

Ottonomy’s robot employs a proprietary contextual mobility navigation software that enables the robot to navigate both indoor and outdoor environments. The company says its robot is fully autonomous and comes programmed with multi layered safety protocols to facilitate safe navigation in crowded environments like curbside, sidewalks and airports.

“Our omnichannel mobile ordering is built to benefit both customers and the staffing needs of retail and restaurant industries,” said April Cho, CEO of Crave. “Ottonomy allows us to give the option for deliveries at food courts, curbsides and at your doorstep.”

“Scaling technologies like robotics in public spaces is extremely challenging, there are many outside factors to consider when embarking in an industry that involves consumer-facing interaction,” said Ritukar Vijay, CEO of Ottonomy. “In the development of our technology, our team was careful to factor in safety to ensure that the solution would be plug and play and scalable for the enterprise.”