Nairobi.- “Welcome!” exclaims Nadia the robot, dressed in a red gown, upon detecting a human presence at the Nairobi entrance of the first restaurant in East Africa to employ this technology, delivering a futuristic customer experience.
The venue, known as Robot Café, is situated in the Kileleshwa district, to the west of Kenya’s capital.
Adorned in a minimalist design with neutral and blue hues, it features two additional robot waitresses, Claire and R24, who navigate from the reception to the patrons’ tables.
Equipped with two cameras on their frontal head area, these automatons can identify and differentiate between objects and people, further enhanced by motion sensors.
The trio of robots streamline the staff’s tasks, with their key role being to deliver products to the table and reduce the waiting time for customers to receive their orders.
A Futuristic Service
26-year-old restaurant waitress, Massy, tells EFE how having a robot helps her serve multiple tables simultaneously allows for a more comprehensive service to the customer.
“It’s truly pleasant to work alongside robots because they ease my workload. I don’t need to carry food from the kitchen to the tables,” the young woman acknowledges, even though she sees the androids as a tool that cannot replace her.
“I must interact with guests and provide personalized service. In the end, (the automatons) cannot talk or connect the way humans do,” explains Massy.
After all, Nadia, Claire, and R24 are machines that can experience malfunctions.
The restaurant manager, John Kariuki, shares with EFE that a robot’s charger broke down in the first week of the venue’s opening.
Another challenge is transporting beverages, like juices, as the restaurant floor features channels obstructing the robots’ path to the tables.
The software programming these robotic waitresses utilizes artificial intelligence alongside the Light, Detection, and Ranging (LIDAR) system, a technology for measuring distances to objects.
“This feature assists the robot in knowing where to go at any given time,” states Kariuki, who launched the restaurant on June 16 and continues to welcome curious customers.
An Obstacle for Employment?
One of the patrons, 25-year-old Barak Leoret, who is having ice coffee at one of the tables during his first visit to such an establishment, confesses, “It’s exciting yet frightening. I thought it was a joke but it’s reality,” he tells EFE. This young engineer born in Samburu county, about 400 kilometers by road from Nairobi, believes the widespread implementation of this technology could harm many young people in the African country who already face difficult barriers to employment.
“It poses a threat to them, so I believe it’s a challenge if we are to introduce it as a development in the country,” the engineer asserts.
Other restaurants on the continent have also embraced this technology, like the Robot Cafe in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital, which led the way in Africa by incorporating androids as waitstaff. South Africa has joined this trend with The Munch Cafe in Johannesburg, utilizing robotic elements in its operations.
The adoption of this technology into the hospitality business marks “just the beginning” of an evolution in the sector, emphasizes Kariuki.
“It’s already part of us. If people wanted to fight against technology, we would have done it a few years ago. Now, we must accept that it’s here to stay,” concludes the restaurant manager.
creditos de las imagenes de este post: Deultimominuto.net
