Robotic Arm springs into action at the Roboeatz eatery in Riga
A pasta order comes in and the robotic arm springs into action at the Roboeatz eatery in Riga. After five minutes of gyrations; a piping hot plate is ready. The Riga cafe, located under a crumbling concrete bridge; is designed in such a way that customers can observe the robotic arm at work. It also has a seating area; although most customers prefer to take it away since vaccination certificates are required to be able to eat indoors in Latvia. A Roboeatz app allows customers to order and pay for their dish before picking it up at the cafe.
“The food tasted better than I expected!” said customer Iveta Ratinika; a teacher and a member of the Latvian capital’s education board. Ratinika said she would encourage school children to come and observe the robotic arm in action and mused that there could be robots working at the school cafeteria within “a few years”.
Kitchen robot in Riga cooks up new future for fast food https://t.co/S70Fr4UzSk #ai #Automation #robots #iot @tnatw pic.twitter.com/A4iaFucoke
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Kitchen design is a ‘real challenge’:
Roboeatz was set up in January 2018 by Konstantins Korcjomkins and Janis Poruks, who have been running the Woki Toki fast-food chain in Latvia since 2009. Their aim? To revolutionize the fast-food industry. “This robot replaces four to six human employees, reducing labor costs significantly,” said Poruks, who has a background in engineering. But he stressed that the introduction of such robots would not push up unemployment rates since “people are not lining up to flip burgers”.
In pictures: Latvian kitchen robot in Riga cooks up new future for fast food as Roboeatz app allows customers to order and pay for their dish before picking it up at the cafe pic.twitter.com/MgN7AfpyA1
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Moreover, “The robot will not replace people who are willing to have a career in restaurants and catering; becoming chefs or other food celebrities. Furthermore, The robot will take those low-paid jobs which most people already do not want,” he said. Automated kitchen technology has been gaining interest in recent years, and that has been accelerated by the pandemic. Lastly, At a newly opened eatery in Paris, customers can watch robots build; bake and box up pizzas at a rate of up to 80 an hour. In the US, a robot named “Sally” belonging; to the startup Chowbotics can whip up salads sold through a vending machine.
© 2021 AFP
