Adorable dog robots serve the perfect ice cream cones to customers

[Sept 3, 2021: Michael Walsh]

In the age of pandemics, restaurants all over the world are enlisting the help of robot servers.

Tokyo-based company Connected Robotics developed adorable robot dog servers to serve ice cream to customers and keep human workers safe during the pandemic. The robot dogs — referred to as Reita-Kun — can prepare an ice cream cone in 30 to 40 seconds or 90 servings per hour, according to the company.

Footage showed a blue dog, with a robot arm protruding from under its head, on the job. A worker placed a cone into the arm, then the robot filled it with soft-serve before delivering it to a customer.

All a customer has to do is put their order in on a tablet or kiosk. On this initial model of the machine, you can order vanilla, chocolate, or a swirl mix. Then the robot, either a cute dinosaur or a dog, kicks into action. A cone or cup drops from the machine into a holder. The robo-animal then spins and places it under the ice cream dispenser. Then it slowly rotates to get that classic soft serve layered design. When the order is finished the robot spins back to the hungry customer for them to grab their sweet treat.

“We introduced Reita to give restaurants better options to deal with the pandemic,” Connected Robotics said according to Newsflare. “The robots will attract more customers because they have unique services. Not only that, the time spent on training part-timers will also decrease with the robots.”

Connected Robotics also offers dinosaur, bird and other customizable ice cream-serving characters. But these robots don’t just have a cool facade. They can have conversations with patrons and even recognize when someone waves or has a facial reaction.

Some of the other available robots are a Hot Snack robot, which is not as cute as the dog, but can work a deep fryer and an electric grill. Another one, still in development, is Loraine, an automatic breakfast maker that prepares bacon, eggs, vegetables, toast and coffee.

The “Reita-kun” also feature “comical voices” to entertain as they work. And the dinosaur even exhales fog to let you know he’s all finished. (Neither are features we want from a human server, FYI.) If you want one for your business (and during social distancing you really might), for an extra fee the company will work with clients who want to get custom designs.

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Tags: #Global_Good_News, #Good_News, #New_Innovations, #Restaurants, #Robotics, #Food_Service, #The_Brighter_Side_of_News