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Robot waiters called BellaBots are being used to serve customers at Noodle Topia in Michigan.
The robot is able to greet guests, lead them to their tables, deliver food and drinks and ferry dirty dishes to the kitchen. The waist-high machines are adapted for serving customers.
Li Zhai was having trouble finding staff for his restaurant in the summer of 2021, so he bought a BellaBot from Pudu Robotics.
“We have a big problem on the staffing during the COVID time period. And so, we needed some help, but I cannot find people,” explains Zhai.
Sales of robot servers have been growing rapidly in recent years.
Tens of thousands of robots are now gliding through dining rooms worldwide.
“We are all attracted to novelty, and we all tend to gravitate toward that. It might bring in people for a little bit,” says Karthik Namasivayam, director of the Michigan State University School of Hospitality Business.
“But ultimately whether a particular technology, robotics for example, can survive really depends upon how useful it has been, how fast it is and how well it interacts with the consumer.”
Others say robot waiters aren’t much more than a gimmick that have a long way to go before they can replace human waiters.
They can’t take orders, for example, and many restaurants have steps, outdoor patios, high booths and other physical challenges to which they can’t adapt.
“There’s been this kind of challenge around consumer acceptance greatly. And to my knowledge, there’s a lot more acceptance of robotics in a public situation in Asia than it is here in the Western countries,” says Namasivayam.
Still, robots are proliferating and at some restaurants, flourishing.
“We should have some chance, like extra opportunities to introduce the food to the customer, to attract them to my restaurant. So, robot is (sic) one of the options, for sure,” says Zhai.
The added bonus: it frees up time for employees working on shift.
“When a waiter is saving a lot of trips, they don’t have to waste time on road (sic). They can focus on serving. They can focus on how is everything going with the customer,” explains Zhai.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.