Oregon State University activated a bomb threat warning Tuesday — alerting its students the campus’ food delivery robots could be carrying an explosive.
“Do not open robots. Avoid all robots until further notice. Public Safety is responding,” the university said in an alert just before 12:30 p.m. local time.
Security quickly rounded up the campus’ 20 Starship robots in an isolated location on its Corvallis campus, located 80 miles southwest of Portland.
“Robots are being investigated by technician,” OSU said in a follow-up alert.
The school lifted the emergency order after an hour but said it was continuing to investigate the bots.
Representatives for the school could not immediately share what led to the bomb threat alert.
The fleet of unmanned androids uses GPS technology to wheel around the 500-acre Corvallis campus to deliver food to students and staff who order through the Starship app
The school introduced the six-wheeled white bots in 2020, making it the first campus in the state to have autonomous delivery robots.