How robots and drones are changing the way we get food delivered to our doorstep

Whether it's by drone or robot, the way your food and parcels get delivered to your doorstep is changing.

Milton Keynes in central England may seem like a typical British town but there's a big difference - small robots deliver groceries, parcels and takeaways to people living there.

Cameras and sensors mean it can travel safely along paths and roads and take items to where they need to go.

Milton Keynes was the first place in the UK to get the service, which is now being tried out in London as well.

But there are lots of other places in the world where robots and drones are changing our daily lives.

1) Drone deliveries in Finland

Tech allows the drones to fly safely and avoid trees and houses on its route.

In June drones started flying food to people in Finland's capital city, Helsinki. The company behind it, Wing, is owned by Alphabet, the same company that owns Google.

The same drones are already delivering ice cream, doughnuts, coffees and other food to people in Australia's capital city, Canberra.

2) A robot on legs

Digit is a two-legged robot that can climb stairs like a human

Car company Ford has teamed up with Agility Robotics to work on something that looks more like you'd imagine when you hear the word 'robot'.

Digit is a two-legged robot that looks a bit like a human and is designed to walk, lift packages and go up and down stairs like one too. It can react to things like being bumped without losing its balance or falling over.

Digit comes inside a driverless car that brings your delivery to your address. It then gets out and brings your parcel right to your doorstep.

3) What's Amazon doing?

Drones that will deliver packages to your front door are being tested by the big tech company, Amazon.

An Amazon Prime Air drone being tested out

Amazon are still working on it but in June a boss from the company said they'll use drones to deliver packages to customers "within months." However, it's not clear where in the world the drone deliveries will first fly, nor exactly when it will happen.

It's not just drones that the company is working with - they have their own delivery robots too, called Scout, which are getting parcels to people in the US state of Washington.

4) More robots on the roll

Lots of other companies are using robots on wheels too. A supermarket in France is testing out delivery robots at their store in Paris and Kiwibot delivery robots have been rolling around the University of California, Berkeley, campus for over two years.

The Kiwibots have digital faces on them too!