Enlarge / A 2020 file photo of a Starship Technologies food delivery robot. Food is stored inside the robot's housing during transportation and opened upon delivery. (credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images )

On Tuesday, officials at Oregon State University issued a warning on social media about a bomb threat concerning Starship Technologies food delivery robots, autonomous wheeled drones that deliver food orders stored within a built-in container. By 7 pm local time, a suspect had been arrested in the prank, and officials declared there had been no bombs hidden within the robots.

"Bomb Threat in Starship food delivery robots," reads the 12:20 pm initial X post from OSU. "Do not open robots. Avoid all robots until further notice." In follow-up posts , OSU officials said they were "r emotely isolating robots in a safe location" for investigation by a technician. By 3:54 pm local time, experts had cleared the robots and promised they would be "back in service" by 4 pm.

In response, Starship Technologies provided this statement to the press : "A student at Oregon State University sent a bomb threat, via social media, that involved Starship’s robots on the campus. While the student has subsequently stated this is a joke and a prank, Starship suspended the service. Safety is of the utmost importance to Starship and we are cooperating with law enforcement and the university during this investigation."

Enlarge / This Kiwibot robot is waiting to be loaded with my muffin. Afterward, a worker carried it across the street on the scooter. (credit: Timothy B. Lee)

I’d been following the robot for about five minutes when it seemed to get hopelessly lost.

The four-wheeled vehicle, the size and shape of a large cooler, was navigating the campus of Howard University in Washington, DC. A digital display on the front showed a pair of pixellated cartoon eyes, but the robot was struggling to understand its surroundings.

The robot repeatedly stopped, turned around, retraced its steps, and turned again. When it reached an intersection, it seemed afraid to cross the street. Instead, it turned around and went back for some 200 feet before freezing once again.