December 11, 2010

New Chinese Restaurant features Cycling Robotic Waiters and Receptionists

by Shalu Pillai

In the northeastern Chinese city of Jinan, is a 100-seat hotpot restaurant with a very unique staffing choice. A team of six robots will be on duty serving you your meal. The restaurant also features two robot receptionists, while the robo-waiters wheel around drinks and food on large indoor pedal-driven carts. The restaurant comes inbuilt with a circular seating design with a track placed around the perimeter of the seating area. Even though the robot waiters have a built-in security system so they don’t run over people standing in front of them, the track seems like a smart way to avoid marauding cycle-bots crashing into steaming-hot hotpots while trying to deliver drinks. Hotpot, too, is probably a smart move, since there’s not a whole lot for a waiter to do besides bring drinks and accoutrements.

Each of the robots cost about ¥40,000 or $6,000 each to build by a robotic manufacturer in Jinan, once famous for demolishing a whole stash of illegal arcade machines.
The venue closes in about 16 days, so if you’re not heading to the Chinese city, here’s a glimpse if this new Service on Wheels.


Via – [Gizmodiva]