Serving the future

FEATURES Serving the future

The droids you’re looking for

Rintaro Sato

Man vs. machine: the battle for employment. This growing narrative of the robotic takeover has undeniably caused worries about job security across the workforce. However, waiters and waitresses can rest easy, as humans remain essential in the food service industry. This is not to undermine the impressive technological developments in this particular field. On the contrary, robotic servers have come a long way since their initial introduction in the early 1980s. One of these first examples was seen in Pasadena, California, where owner Shayne Hayashi debuted two admittedly faulty robots in his Chinese restaurant, the Two Panda Deli. At the time, the public opinion of the robots was mixed, as seen in an article from the time. “The robots at the Two Panda deli, a fast-food

Chinese eatery in Pasadena, tend to blur their words drunkenly when their 12volt power cells run down, and they’ve been known to drop food and spin in circles when police radios operate nearby,” said a Miami News article from June 10, 1983.

These flaws highlight the difficulty of developing technology that can fully replace humans. While robotics can easily take over assembly lines and factories, working in the food service industry requires a complex understanding of human interaction.

Modern-day technology has allowed robotic servers to feature a much more practical design, such as the Bear Robotics servers used in Yayoi, a Japanese restaurant in Hillsdale, California.

This compact design features multiple trays with a touch screen and voice messages, allowing for basic communication between the robot and the customers. Human servers can send the robots to wherever it is needed in the restaurant with the simple touch of a button.

At Yayoi, restaurant management has been able to establish separate roles for robotic and human servers, with humans still taking orders but with a robot assisting with the distribution of food and drinks.

“The robotic servers are mainly here to do repetitive work and entertain the customers. This way, the human servers have more time to meet the wants and needs of the customers,” said Yayoi general manager Inderjit Singh.

In this way, Singh and his employees believe the Yayoi robots simply supplement the work of humans, therefore improving the overall customer experience.

“[The robots] are very interesting, but I don’t [believe] they are taking over my job,” said Nick Lee, a server at Yayoi.

Robotic servers also play a role in the marketing side of the restaurant, utilizing the growing usage of social media.

“If somebody that we didn’t even have to pay posts about the robot at this restaurant [on social media] and tags us, that’s free promotion for us,” Singh said.

However, this technology does come with its drawbacks, as Singh believes that robot servers are not for everyone.

“We get a lot of families and children, so they find the robots enjoyable. But then you might have a lot of other customers at other restaurants, maybe even this one, who might start thinking, why am I doing the serving for myself?” Singh said.

Even with mixed opinions about robotic servers, there is no denying the impact of this technology, allowing for the enhancement of customer service while maintaining the job security of humans.

Photo by Rinataro Sato