The Robot Restaurant in China’s Heilongjiang Province is a conventional restaurant in every sense, save the glaring exception that the food is prepared and served entirely by an army of 20 robots with just a modicum of human oversight.
The BBC just took a tour to see what it’s like. Cabinets are pre-loaded with the necessary raw ingredients, then a human presses the button that corresponds to the dish being prepared, and one of the four chef robots handle the rest. When the preparation is complete, one of the server-bots will take the food to the table. While the patrons eat their robo-fare, a singing robot provides entertainment.
Restaurant owner Liu Hasheng came up with the idea to use robots as a means of cutting down on cost, but don’t be fooled into thinking these are cheap devices. While they are certainly more affordable than human labor in the longer term, we learn via Amusing Planet that each of these robots costs between $31,500 and $47,000 up front.
Check out the BBC report below to see them in action.
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