With the pandemic showing no sign of slowing down, let alone stopping, it calls for a new normal. Part of the new normal is continual social distancing and donning of face mask. In Japan, something else is happening too.
Ramen chain, Kourakuen Co., Ltd., has started to deploy non-contact robot food server to minimize contact with patrons and also to solve labor shortages. The ramen restaurant will start a pilot, an AI robot named K-1, at its store in Fukushima prefecture.
I am sure you already expecting the usual. And by usual, we mean sensors on robot to prevent collision with anything. Kourakuen Co., Ltd. said voice guidance is possible, but it did not further elaborate how.
Here’s how the robot server will play out:
Customer will order food from a tablet installed at the table. Staff confirms order and proceed to put the dish on the robot which has multiple shelves. Staff will then key in where the robot server supposed to deliver the food and K-1 will proceed to do its job. The robot is no Sonny, though. It has no hands and so, presumably, patrons will have to retrieve the dishes placed on the shelves on K-1. After the food has been served, it will return to the kitchen to await for the next job.
The company said K-1 can entertain too, though it never explains how.
Images: Kourakuen Co., Ltd..
