Robot waiters that lease for less than $1,000 a month have rolled into B.C. restaurants from Richmond to Vancouver Island as the hospitality industry reacts to a severe staff shortage.
Nanaimo’s Driftwood Restaurant’s new robot server the BellaBot model has big round eyes, a smiling mouth and will change expressions. Move close to it and the robot moves automatically to avoid a collision.
Restaurants appreciate the robots’ efficiency because they reduce the number of trips staff make to and from the kitchen.
Clair Zhang, co-owner of the Driftwood Restaurant, said that Bella Holt (the nickname for the robot) is mainly used to ferry take-out orders from the kitchen to customers at the front door of the Driftwood restaurant. Packaged meals are carried on the robot’s shelves.
Driftwood obtained Bella this summer under a three-year lease-to-own program with Edmonton supplier GreenCo Robots, which imports them from manufacturers in China.
At the Mantra restaurant in Victoria, owner Dharmendar Sohal, said he bought the robot because the restaurant is short-staffed. “This is a good option for us. … It’s a good helping hand.”
Customers are happy when they see Robbie the robot and enjoy interacting with it, especially youngsters, he said. When children pet the robot, it smiles, its eyes move and it meows.
Sohal said he will likely get a second robot for Mantra’s other location on Tillicum Road, Victoria.
He expects a new version, able to take orders, will be available soon.
Fort Street Mantra manager Dharna Sohal said Robbie is bringing in a lot of new customers. They share videos of the robot in action as it delivers food and drinks to tables and they tell their families about it.
“When we are busy it is like an extension of me. I can do two things at the same time,” Dharna Sohal said.
It is programmed to know tables by number. Its sounds and volume can be changed. Robbie greets customers at the front and will escort them to their tables.
The robot is charged overnight and can operate for 12 hours on its battery.
When Robbie quietly rolled up to Ian Reid’s table, it was easy to understand what to do. An order of naan bread sat on the top shelf, which lit up.
“You just pick your item off the shelf and then you push a button on its face that says ‘done.’ Then the eyes come back up, it smiles and off it goes.”
Liang Yu, owner of GreenCo Robots, said he’s sent about 30 BellaBot robots across Canada and has a waiting list for 10 more. “There’s definitely a good demand in the market.”
The first in B.C. went into service at Hao’s Lamb Restaurant team in Richmond, B.C. earlier this year.
Depending on the model, robots cost a little less than $20,000 and up to $30,000.
The lease-to-own program costs less than $1,000 per month for three years, he said.
They can be used for events such as business mixtures because robots can roll around a room carrying food and drinks. A robot will stop whenever someone touches it, Yu said.
A study of one restaurant robot found it made about 500 trips in one day and delivered about 750 meals, Yu said.
“Although Bella just joined our team, she is super helpful. She allows other human staff to have time to concentrate on other tasks, such as packing takeout orders, greeting guests, clearing tables and refilling water,” said Zhengwen Hao, owner of Hao’s Lamb Restaurant.
“As such a hardworking employee, Bella never asks for any tips from me,” laughed Hao, adding that Bella can sing Happy Birthday to customers, in Mandarin and English.
Bella is a PuduBot, initially developed by Chinese-based Company Pudu Robotics.
Hao bought two PuduBots amid the pandemic in hopes of easing up the labour shortage and help with social-distancing rules, but was surprised when Bella also boosted business.
He said younger customers have been trying to interact with Bella, while many others snap and share photos and video of his new “staff member”
As for people concerned about the robots taking over from human servers, Yu said they are being introduced to help serve and make customers feel safer, with less human contact during the pandemic.
