Robot restaurants put a new spin on fast informal
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They're not our conspirators as of this time. At these restaurants, the robots are here to serve you.
When someone says "robot restaurant, " I first think of an LED and laser show at a Tokyo venue where remote-controlled robots dance with bikini-clad girls in a physical show that accompanies dinner.
But the reality of robot restaurants is generally way more pedestrian and low-class.
One example is Eatsa, the San Francisco-based restaurant company that takes orders through iPads and dispenses meals through automated machines. Until now, Eatsa has been using this tech to provide up quinoa bowls to health-food fans in its own restaurants. But the company announced Friday that it can expanding its robotic system to the fast-casual restaurant chain Wow Bao next month.
Tap on your cubby to receive your food
At Chicago-based Wow Bao, you can already order your steamed buns via its iphone app or an on-site kiosk. But with Eatsa's tech, you'll also manage to gather your meal from an LED-lit cubbyhole displaying your name. Text appearing on the front of the cubby, one amongst a larger array, will tell you when your order is cooking and once you can double-tap on the box to accumulate your food.
It's a quick turn-around for Eatsa, which only a couple weeks in the past announced the closing of five of its several restaurants across the country. The company has now turned its focus to offering automated tech as a platform to other restaurants such as Wow Bao.
A combo of man-made intelligence, personal screens, robotics and -- perhaps most crucially -- the willingness of hungry customers to skip human interaction is coming at the moment to make Eatsa's shift possible. It's part of a gradual creep of technology that is transforming our activities of dining out, and even dining in, thanks to advances in delivery technology.
Eatsa's concept might appear exotic today, but Neil Stern, senior partner at retail consulting firm McMillan Doolittle, said we can expect to see more of this kind of tech popping up. "Does it make sense to hide assembly of orders and deliver via an office? " he said. "Maybe not. But Eatsa will present a vision of the future that will be duplicated or enhanced. "
Automatic robot restaurants-Robot Restaurant bento box
The first Eatsa-equipped Wow Bao will open in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago on Dec. 1. Using the technology, Incredible Bao plans to increase its sites in 2018. It currently has several company-owned locations, plus airport terminal, school campus, hotel and stadium franchises.
"When I first heard about Eatsa opening in San Francisco, I jumped on a plane to come see it, " Wow Bao President Geoff Alexander said in a statement. Alexander praised the technology as both entertaining and efficient. "I knew straight away that Eatsa would be the perfect technology to integrate into our future locations. "
Do robots belong in the kitchen?
For Eatsa and soon at Wow Bao, the robotic technology is front and center in the restaurant, serving customers and providing them with an experience to go along with their takeout. In other restaurants, robots remain strictly consigned to the kitchen.
At Coffee shop X and Zume, both based in Bay area, robots make lattes and pizza, respectively. California startup Miso Robotics has built a kitchen assistant robot called Flippy, which from early on 2018 is expected to be grilling burgers in CaliBurger restaurants.
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