Starship plans to expand its operations from two campuses to twenty by 2019 with a fleet of a thousand and the Co-op deal follows trials with Just Eat to deliver takeaways in South London.

The machines have a top speed of 10mph (16.1 km/h) and in busy areas are accompanied by a human minder. The firm claims none has been stolen or vandalised, with 100,000 miles of delivery journeys completed so far.

The robots will be put to work in 20 university or work campuses across the UK, US and Germany. They can travel up to three miles and are fitted with ultrasonic sensors for detecting obstacles, nine cameras, radar and GPS.

Upon arrival, the recipient of the parcel receives a text message containing a link to unlock the robot.

Starship told Radio 4's You and Yours programme it can deliver 200 of the most common grocery items via robot in Milton Keynes.

Milton Keynes is already earmarked as one of the UK's testing grounds for driverless cars.

Starship's vice president of marketing.Henry Harris-Burland said that these campus environments are like robot playgrounds.

"In Hamburg we are delivering spare parts and tools between buildings and to people's desks. Sorting offices in some businesses are becoming overloaded as people order more personal deliveries to their workplace. Anything that can fit in the robot we can deliver."