eater.com A Chinese cafe owner is running its restaurant using robot workers. Some cook food and others greet and serve the customers.
Located in Kunshan, eastern China, the restaurant relies on over a dozen machines.
This isn't new either. Restauranteurs have been using robots for several years. The first were exorbitantly expensive, but the latest robots cost around £4000 ($6,253). The same as the yearly pay for a human employee.
The eatery becomes the third café in the world to rely on the use of robot employees, perhaps giving a glimpse into how future businesses could operate.
There are drawbacks to using the robots. Some dishes are too complex for the mechanical helpers. So a handful of humans work in the kitchen.
The futuristic machines have a limited vocabulary and take two hours to charge enough to complete a five hour shift.
Back in 2013, Robot Restaurant, in the Heilongjiang province of China, used 20 robots to cook, sing to its guests while their order is being prepared, and then serve the meal. The restaurant opened in June 2012 and has since become a novelty spot in the province's capital. The robot staff move over tracks on the floor leading from the kitchen and down the aisles between tables.
The bots are between four and five feet tall and can display 10 different facial expressions. Back then, each one cost between $30,000 and $50,000, the Mail reported.
Other restaurants are experimenting with non-human staff as well. In San Francisco, Momentum Machines is about to launch a burger joint where all the cooking is done by robots. The company says the machines can crank out more than 360 hamburgers per hour. The company's robot can slice toppings like tomatoes and pickles immediately before it places the slice onto your burger. Read more.
Located in Kunshan, eastern China, the restaurant relies on over a dozen machines.
This isn't new either. Restauranteurs have been using robots for several years. The first were exorbitantly expensive, but the latest robots cost around £4000 ($6,253). The same as the yearly pay for a human employee.
The eatery becomes the third café in the world to rely on the use of robot employees, perhaps giving a glimpse into how future businesses could operate.
There are drawbacks to using the robots. Some dishes are too complex for the mechanical helpers. So a handful of humans work in the kitchen.
The futuristic machines have a limited vocabulary and take two hours to charge enough to complete a five hour shift.
Back in 2013, Robot Restaurant, in the Heilongjiang province of China, used 20 robots to cook, sing to its guests while their order is being prepared, and then serve the meal. The restaurant opened in June 2012 and has since become a novelty spot in the province's capital. The robot staff move over tracks on the floor leading from the kitchen and down the aisles between tables.
The bots are between four and five feet tall and can display 10 different facial expressions. Back then, each one cost between $30,000 and $50,000, the Mail reported.
Other restaurants are experimenting with non-human staff as well. In San Francisco, Momentum Machines is about to launch a burger joint where all the cooking is done by robots. The company says the machines can crank out more than 360 hamburgers per hour. The company's robot can slice toppings like tomatoes and pickles immediately before it places the slice onto your burger. Read more.
www.ryerson.ca Meanwhile, an Ontario-built hitchhiking robot nears end of its solo cross-country tour in Canada.
In just over two weeks, the bucket-bodied ’bot with gum boots and pool noodle limbs has made it into the heart of British Columbia, where it awaits a motorcycle ride to Vancouver. A team of academics and engineering students programmed hitchBOT to track its progress online and take pictures to post on Twitter and Instagram. The robot can also chat with people who pick it up, discussing where it’s headed while scouring Wikipedia to spit out regionally relevant facts. See more here.
Rather than worry about robots taking over human jobs in the future, consider what's happening in the present. Would you dine at a robot-run restaurant? What about giving a ride to a mechanized hitchBot?
In just over two weeks, the bucket-bodied ’bot with gum boots and pool noodle limbs has made it into the heart of British Columbia, where it awaits a motorcycle ride to Vancouver. A team of academics and engineering students programmed hitchBOT to track its progress online and take pictures to post on Twitter and Instagram. The robot can also chat with people who pick it up, discussing where it’s headed while scouring Wikipedia to spit out regionally relevant facts. See more here.
Rather than worry about robots taking over human jobs in the future, consider what's happening in the present. Would you dine at a robot-run restaurant? What about giving a ride to a mechanized hitchBot?
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