Robot Restaurant in Tokyo Japan-Robotic restaurants

Robotic restaurants put a new spin on fast informal

They're not our conspirators at this time. 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 sensory show that accompanies meal.

But the reality of robot restaurants is generally much more pedestrian and low-class.

One of these 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 is actually expanding its robotic system to the fast-casual restaurant chain Wow Bao next month.

Tap on your cubby to get your food

At Chicago-based Wow Bao, you can already order your steamed buns via its iphone app or an on-site kiosk. Good results . Eatsa's tech, you'll also have the ability to acquire your meal from an LED-lit cubbyhole displaying your name. Text showing on the front of the cubby, one amid a larger array, will tell you when your order is cooking and when you can double-tap on the box to gather 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 eight restaurants across the country. The company has turned 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 moment to make Eatsa's shift possible. It's part of any sluggish 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 conceal assembly of orders and deliver via an office? " he said. "Maybe not. But Eatsa does present a vision of the future that will be replicated or enhanced. "

Robot Restaurant in Tokyo Japan-Robotic 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 double its sites in 2018. It currently has seven company-owned locations, plus air-port, university 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 include into our future locations. "

Do robots fit in in the kitchen?
In Eatsa and soon at Wow Bao, the automatic 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 remain strictly consigned to your kitchen.

At Coffeehouse X and Zume, both based in San Francisco, automated programs 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.