Restaurants in Singapore have been packed with diners after the further easing of community and border measures in April. This adds to the manpower shortage challenge restauranteurs face since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With more people dining in restaurants and a lack of servers, F&B businesses are presented with more problems such as longer wait times and frustrated customers. A survey done by Lightspeed found that 50% of U.S. restaurant operators plan to implement some form of automation technology in the next two to three years. To help you better understand robot deployment at a restaurant, here's a complete guide to robot waiters installation.
What is a Robot Waiter?
A robot waiter is an autonomous service robot that delivers food from the kitchen to the customers' tables at a restaurant. The robots assist human waiters in serving customers better, not taking away their job. Mundane jobs such as sending food to customers can be taken care of by the robot waiter while human servers focus on customers' requests and interactions, improving diner satisfaction.
Step 1: Understanding Your Business
The first step is to carry out a physical site survey at your restaurant to understand your business and how servers operate. The operations of your restaurant determine the type of robot waiter you need for your business. Factors such as the size of the restaurant, width of the walkway, furniture setting, etc., are taken into consideration as every robot has its unique function that specialises in a specific task.
Step 2: Arrangement of Restaurant Furniture
Our expert will then advise you on the arrangement of the tables and chairs to achieve the most optimal result. The setting has to cater for the comfort of both humans and robots. Most importantly, meet the restaurant's table turnover rate. Once the layout plan is finalised, we will plan the food delivery path of the robot.
Step 3: Determine the Food Delivery Path
Once the floor plan is ready, next will be to install the markers along the path. The sensors collect environment data of all kinds, which are then fed into PuduBot algorithms for accurate map creation. Another option is to have the robot scan the environment with laser or we could also combine the markers with laser for better accuracy. The smart path planning feature ensures the robot waiters find the shortest way to reach the diners' tables quickly. Designed to stereo-model the restaurant environment quickly, the robot identifies the environment and locates its position smartly.
Step 4: Configuring the Waiter Robots
We will then label the tables and food station locations with different names. It's critical to have the labelling done accurately as the service robots will be moving from the kitchen to the destinated location - keyed in by a human waiter outside the kitchen. There will be no confusion or errors in sending the dishes to diners wrongly with the labelling done right.
Step 5: Testing the Restaurant Robots
Once the configuration is done, we will test the robot waiters to ensure the operations run smoothly. Besides, we will also be training the human servers on how to operate the robot waiters. Our expert will be at your restaurant during the first few days of the deployment to guide your team on the usage of your newly purchased service robots.
The waiter robots can be set up and operated at your restaurants in just two hours. The entire installation would not affect your restaurant's operational hours. All you have to take care of will be increasing profitability for your business. Request for a demo now if you are keen to find out more about our robot waiters.