Autonomous delivery robot navigating a university campus
China Robotics & AI·4 min read

Meituan Expands Campus Delivery Robots with 5G Remote Ops

By Chen Wei

Image: Image courtesy of Franck V. via Unsplash

The new robots rely on Qualcomm Ride Flex chips and 3D lidar to navigate crowded quads. A remote operations center in Beijing can take over within two seconds if the robots encounter blocked paths or escalator conflicts.

Meituan embedded polite voice prompts tuned with social scientists to encourage pedestrians to share space. Students can summon the robots through the Meituan app and watch live ETAs, while dining halls sync menus dynamically.

The company plans to add nighttime security patrols as a secondary use case. Regulators in Beijing approved the expansion after Meituan published quarterly safety audits and detailed fallback procedures.