Robot Restaurant fremont-Automatic robot restaurants

Automatic robot restaurants put a new spin on fast casual

They're not our overlords just yet. At these restaurants, the robots are here to serve you.
When ever 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 supper.

But the reality of robot restaurants is generally way more pedestrian and low-key.

An 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 serve up quinoa bowls to health-food fans in the own restaurants. But the company announced Friday that it can expanding its robotic program 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 be able to accumulate your meal from an LED-lit cubbyhole displaying your name. Text showing up on the front of the cubby, one amid a larger array, will tell you once your order is cooking so when you can double-tap on the box to gather your meal.

It's a quick turnaround for Eatsa, which only a couple weeks ago announced the closing of five of its several restaurants across the country. The company has changed its focus to offering automated tech as a platform to other restaurants such as Wow Bao.

A blend of man-made intelligence, personal screens, robotics and -- perhaps most crucially -- the determination of hungry customers to skip human interaction is coming at the right moment to make Eatsa's shift possible. It's part of a sluggish creep of technology which transforming our activities of dining out, and even dining in, thanks to advances in delivery technical.

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 seem sensible to cover assembly of orders and deliver via a workplace? " he said. "Maybe not. But Eatsa does indeed present a vision of the future that will be copied or enhanced. "

Robot Restaurant fremont-Automatic robot restaurants

The first Eatsa-equipped Wow Bao will open in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago on Dec. 1. Using the technology, Wow Bao plans to increase its sites in 2018. It currently has eight company-owned locations, plus airport terminal, college or university campus, hotel and stadium franchises.

"When We 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 immediately that Eatsa would be the perfect technology to include into our future locations. "

Do robots are supposed to be in the kitchen?
At Eatsa and soon at Wow Bao, the robotic technology is front and center in the restaurant, serving customers and providing these an experience to go along with their takeout. In other restaurants, robots are still strictly consigned to your kitchen.

At Cafe X and Zume, both based in Bay area, robots make lattes and pizzas, 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.