Robots serve up food and fun in Budapest cafe

The cafe, opened by IT company E-Szoftverfejlesztő in the Hungarian capital, is staffed by a whole team of robots that aim to help familiarize the public with the technological revolution in automation and artificial intelligence.

The robot waiters follow fixed paths to deliver food and drink orders to customers, who are asked to keep out of the robots’ way.

Others serve up entertainment, such as Pepper, a “receptionist” robot that can hold a conversation and also dance with customers.

Developed by Japanese company Softbank, Pepper needed to be modified to be able to hear customers in the noisy environment of a cafe, owner Tibor Csizmadia says.

 “We actually employ twice as many people as before, because to operate 16 to 20 robots from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. we need to have IT specialists in the background,” Csizmadia says.

(REUTERS)