Think of them as gentle versions of the Terminator. Gentle Terminators who love food and teatime, that is. Imagine a restaurant where robots greet customers, deliver dishes to tables and even stir-fry meat and vegetables! It's all a reality at the eatery in Kunshan, which opened last week. "My daughter asked me to invent a robot because she doesn't like doing housework," the restaurant's founder Song Yugang told AFP.
The restaurant, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, follows in the tracks of another robotic eatery which opened in the northeastern city of Harbin in 2012.Rising labour costs in China have encouraged manufacturers to turn to automation, and the country last year surpassed Japan to become the world's biggest consumer of industrial robots. The cooking robots - which have a fixed repertoire - exhibit limited artificial intelligence, and are loaded with ingredients by human staff, who also help to make some dishes.But customers at the restaurant who tucked into fried tomatoes with egg, soup, and rice were thrilled with the experience. "My children are really excited by the robots," said Yang Limei, a mother of three.The round-headed waiter robots can only move along fixed paths, and politely ask customers to move out of their way whenever their routes are blocked."I've never seen a robot serving food before," said Yuan Yuan, nine. "I'm really surprised."
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The restaurant, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, follows in the tracks of another robotic eatery which opened in the northeastern city of Harbin in 2012.Rising labour costs in China have encouraged manufacturers to turn to automation, and the country last year surpassed Japan to become the world's biggest consumer of industrial robots. The cooking robots - which have a fixed repertoire - exhibit limited artificial intelligence, and are loaded with ingredients by human staff, who also help to make some dishes.But customers at the restaurant who tucked into fried tomatoes with egg, soup, and rice were thrilled with the experience. "My children are really excited by the robots," said Yang Limei, a mother of three.The round-headed waiter robots can only move along fixed paths, and politely ask customers to move out of their way whenever their routes are blocked."I've never seen a robot serving food before," said Yuan Yuan, nine. "I'm really surprised."