Robot serving Restaurant Japan-Robot restaurants

Automatic robot restaurants put a new spin on fast everyday

They're not our conspirators just yet. At these restaurants, the robots are here to serve you.
Once 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 dinner.

But the reality of robot restaurants is generally far 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 provide up quinoa bowls to health-food fans in its 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 obtain 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 accumulate 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 whenever your order is cooking so 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 seven 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 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 right moment to make Eatsa's shift possible. It's part of the sluggish creep of technology which transforming our experience of dining out, and even dining in, thanks to advances in delivery technology.

Eatsa's concept might seem to be 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 an office? " he said. "Maybe not. But Eatsa does indeed present a vision of the future that will be copied or enhanced. "

Robot serving Restaurant Japan-Robot restaurants

The first Eatsa-equipped Wow Bao will open in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago on Dec. you. Using the technology, Incredible Bao plans to twin its sites in 2018. It currently has several company-owned locations, plus air-port, college or university campus, hotel and stadium franchises.

"When I actually 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 incorporate into our future locations. "

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

At Coffeehouse X and Zume, both based in Bay area, programs make lattes and pizzas, respectively. California startup Miso Robotics has built a kitchen assistant robot called Flippy, which from early 2018 is expected to be grilling burgers in CaliBurger restaurants.