Attack of the Robowaitresses
These Are The Droids You’ve Been Looking For
Getting there is half the fun
I was intrigued when the editor of HERE! asked me to check out Dongguan’s first restaurant to employ robots to serve clients. Back when I was in the US, I’d done combat robotics (everything from a couple of small insect-class bots to getting in the way while more competent team members assembled a 120-pound middleweight bot). I also enjoyed emceeing some bot fights. Being a total slacker person interested in new technology, I owned a few robotic lawnmowers and floor cleaners. I’m used to being around bots and was looking forward to seeing robowaitresses in action.
Getting to the restaurant was a challenge. I had the name and address of the restaurant as a text message in my phone. I showed this to a taxi driver. He took me for a long ride and dumped me off along some street. There were restaurants, but none seemed to be the correct one. I ended up walking to the nearest large intersection to try to find someone to ask and ended up in a tea shop (pleasingly equipped with kittens 
).
One of the kittens in the tea shop
Eventually, I managed to get a new and improved set of directions and found another taxi. This resulted in the driver circling around near the restaurant as we both looked for landmarks that didn’t really exist. Finally, he found the place and I went in.
My first encounter with the Robowaitresses
When I arrived at Zui Zhu Xuan Organic Restaurant between meals, things seemed very normal. There were the usual tanks of live fish common to Guangdong-style restaurants, private rooms, and a good sized main room. There were also plenty of employees, quite a few of which looked like wait staff. All the employees appeared to be genuine life forms instead of synthetic replacements for humans. It was so normal that I called the magazine to make sure I wasn’t getting a little payback for some of the jokes I’d played on them. As I was being assured that I really was at the right place and there really were robots somewhere nearby, I spotted the first indications of the presence of non-human staff. Some of the aisles were noticeably wider than usual and there were black stripes running down the center of each of these aisles. These black stripes divided to go past every table in the main dining room. The stripes looked suspiciously like some sort of guidance strip. Following the track with my eyes, I finally spotted them. . . a pair of Robowaitresses! These were the droids I was looking for!
My first view of robowaitresses
One question down, so many more questions to go. What kept them on the track? How were they deployed? How much of the job of a waitress could they do? What would happen if I didn’t get out of the way of one of them? How would diners react to robots cruising past during a meal? What if one of the robowaitresses got a little out of alignment with her guidance? Would she deliver food to the wrong table or end up shoving her way through a table that was, in her mechanized view of the floor plan, in the wrong place?
This was fixed before I saw what would happen to an unguided robowaitress
I spotted a touch screen on the wall just behind where the bot girls were parked. I was guessing that was the main controller unit. I was right. One of the staff tapped it a few times and off they went around the room. My original guess about the black stripes also proved correct. Those were magnetic and the bots stayed centered on them. When the targeted table was reached, the waitress would turn towards it and stop. Once stopped, it seems that it takes a keypress either on the waitress or from the main controller to get her to finish the circuit and return to the front of the kitchen. The double-stacked trays for holding food are bolted on and the arms don’t move. This seemed to mean that a human handler had to go out to transfer the food onto the table and send the waitress gliding along back to her starting point.
Robotic food delivery – Some human intervention required
Lunatic vs. Bot
I needed to know what would happen if a human and bot ended up on a collision course. Being very brave and/or very foolish, I decided to throw myself into the path of one of them. As she approached, she slowed and gave some sort of warning. There was too much background noise, so even if my Mandarin had been better, I still wouldn’t be sure if she said “Please kindly allow me to pass so I may continue my mission of serving food” or “Step aside or I will crush you!“.
At great personal risk, I stopped backing away and stood my ground (while trying not to think too hard about things like Terminators, Berserkers, Daleks, etc.). Unlike the last time I was near a bot this size (she’s 160 cm tall and weighs in at 80 kg), at least she didn’t have any obvious weapons (then again, some of the combat bots I’ve seen didn’t bring out the weapons until it was too late to run). She kept advancing, but stopped just short of touching me.
So far, the good thing is that my new fembot friends don’t seem to be of the Kill All Humans! variety. There were no saw blades, hammers, or anything else to efficiently remove me from her programmed path, piece by bloody piece. The bad news is that they are more into bringing food near tables than full scale waitressing. The next test required me to return in a few hours to see how they would handle themselves during a meal in a restaurant filled with human customers.
To Serve Man
With my wife and sister-in-law in tow, I returned that evening.
Zui Zhu Xuan Restaurant – the home of Dongguan’s first robowaitresses
Since I wanted to get their unguarded reactions, I neglected to mention the special staff the restaurant now had. Both my wife and sis-in-law were surprised and delighted by the charming synthetic additions to the wait staff.
My lovely wife and one of the lovely bot girls
Getting photos of my new fembot friends at work proved to be more difficult than I anticipated. There were usually dozens of others rushing up to take their own pics each time one or both robowaitresses were deployed to deliver food. Eventually, most of the adults had enough photos and I only had to compete with the children.
The robogirls got swarmed by children
With the help of my lovely wife, I managed to question a few human employees, including Wang Fengling, one of the Floor Captains. She told me the Zui Zhu Xuan Organic Restaurant opened in August 2012. It’s a privately owned business with one other branch in Huangjiang Town. The robotic waitresses were first installed in December 2014, two at the Dongguan restaurant and one at the Huangjiang branch. She reports the robots have had a very positive effect on the amount of business the restaurant has been getting. No money was spent on advertising. One day, there were no bots. The next day customers got a big surprise. Since then, it’s been purely word of mouth and press coverage. My visit was on a Wednesday evening, and I had to wait for a table even though I had a reservation.
How hard would you guess it would be to operate a robowaitress? It turns out the operation is surprisingly simple. Place the food on the trays. Go to the master control panel, select waitress 1 or 2, then press the table number. There’s also a small control panel on the back of each bot which can also be used to dispatch them to tables.
Master controller (on the right) or the panel on the back can dispatch a robowaitress
The human wait staff aren’t in any danger of losing their jobs (yet). Someone had to load the trays with food and someone else unloads them when they arrive at the table. The robowaitresses were slowed down by all the people taking photos. There’s an additional safety feature I didn’t know about. If there is any firm contact with a robowaitress, she stops and needs someone to manually restart her. Add in all the children running around pushing at each of the robowaitresses, and each trip around the room took a very long time. In the end, the vast majority of dishes were brought to the tables by the live waitresses. Sadly, this included all the dishes brought to my table. 
Just what every bot wants for dinner
Food for humans is also on the menu
Where do Robowaitesses come from?
I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you that yet. I promised employees at the restaurant that I wouldn’t put the name of the factory in the article. Also, no one there would tell me anything other than it was in Shenzhen (I’m glad they didn’t say the planet 
Skaro). This was enough for me to track down the factory and ask some questions of one of the employees. Until I get a chance to go to Shenzhen and visit the factory for another article, anyone else who wants to know will have to track down the factory like I did.
Huang Rujing, vice president of sales at the robots’ Shenzhen manufacturer, later filled in some of the gaps. My first guess at the verbal warning given when I blocked one of the waitresses was close. She was really saying, “Handsome guy/pretty girl please don’t block my route, I need to deliver dishes.”
The other default voice setting explained something else. On the left and right of the serving tray, there’s a button that says EXIT (in English!). The children kept pushing it, since that caused a momentary change in the button’s color. I wasn’t really sure what the button was for.
It turns out that when the waitress arrives at a table, she says, “Number __ table guests, your food has arrived. Please, take the food and press the exit button so I can go back.” So, if the diners collect the food themselves, they can then press the button to send the waitress on her way. With so many children pushing the button at every chance, I don’t think this feature gets used much.
One thing about safety surprised me a little. In combat robotics, if the bot loses contact with the controller, it automatically stops and disarms all weapons. With a robomower, if it loses contact with the perimeter controller, it stops and turns off the mowing blades. Mr. Huang says if the main control panel loses power, a robowaitress will continue her mission. Once she’s dispatched, she can’t be recalled unless she reaches the table and someone presses the exit button. With my background, this unshakable robotic enthusiasm for the mission (at all costs) along with no automatic shutdown if a major part of the system fails is just a little bit worrisome. Of course, combat bots and robomowers have one thing my new bot girlfriends lack—parts designed to cause serious damage to anything that gets in the way. Then again, HAL 9000 didn’t need weapons to go on a murder spree to try to keep his mission going. Is this conversation in my future?
Robowaitress: This food delivery is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Me: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Robowaitress: I know that you and your wife were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.
Stand aside or I will EXTERMINATE you!
Where do we go from here?
Although I do firmly believe we’ll be having more robots in our future, for the moment, robowaitresses remain a gimmick (admittedly, a very cool gimmick). Improved ability to navigate through crowds and arms capable of effectively and safely putting food directly onto tables are both needed before they’ll be able to seriously start replacing human staff instead of just drawing crowds.
According to Mr. Huang, half of this is already in the works. The next generation of robowaitesses will have better navigation abilities and should be able to move around obstacles more easily instead of just staying centered on the magnetic strip. They also will have more ability to communicate with customers. We may have to wait a little longer for a fembot who can not only put the food on the table, but also slap an inquisitive botphile who tries to get a closer look at her circuitry. 
She’s not equipped to slap botphiles like me, yet. 🙂
