The past four years have brought much change to the food services industry. During the 2020 pandemic, restaurants had to close their doors for months. Once they fully re-opened in 2021, service industries were hit hard by the staffing shortages dubbed the “Great Resignation,” those shortages remain a persistent challenge to this day.
Employees who exited food services took jobs in other, less contact-frequent industries, and many have not returned. Even while restaurants have dealt with a labor shortage, labor costs have risen, too; according to the National Restaurant Association, 86% of restaurant operators reported higher labor costs in 2022 than in 2019.
As restaurant owners strive not only to survive but to thrive in a changed industry, it may come as little surprise that more are experimenting with service robots to solve some of the problems presented by labor shortages and higher labor costs.
Robots in the Restaurant
Of course, robots in food services are still relatively new, partly because adopting the latest technology can be expensive in terms of upfront investment, but there are already several examples. South Korea’s popular chain Mad for Garlic and China’s restaurant FOODOM Tianjiang Food Kingdom have substituted service robots for human servers.
The same move was recently made at Royal Palace Renesse in the Netherlands. Pasadena, California’s Chinese restaurant Two Panda Deli, has two robots delivering food to its clientele. The robots, Tanbo R-1 and Tanbo R-2 are wheeled with domed heads, resembling Star Wars’ R2-D2. They carry trays from the kitchen to the tables.
Waiting on customers isn’t the only service that robots are providing. Fast food chain Chipotle, where customers receive food while in line rather than awaiting delivery to a table, is testing the use of robots to prepare guacamole, assemble salads, and assemble bowls for the customers.
How Robots are Helping Restaurants Become More Efficient
As restaurants often face staffing shortages, robots can help take the burden off busy staff. They can streamline operations, giving guests an enjoyable experience while allowing staff to focus on other tasks. Robots have the ability to reduce labor costs and waste in restaurants. In addition, they also make fewer mistakes, resulting in more efficient and positive dining experiences.
The adoption of service robots is rising partly because the technology is advancing quickly. Unlike Tanbo R-1 and Tanbo R-2, BellaBot is shaped like a rolling kiosk with multiple levels of trays; at restaurants in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Japan, and in many other countries, BellaBot is used to deliver food and drinks, but it can also take orders, answer questions, and interact more personably with guests through voice activation. The robot even reacts to being “petted” by a customer.
BellaBot is the brainchild of ToDo Robotics, which develops specialized server, delivery, and cleaning robots for over 150 clients. The company partners with Pudu Robotics to design delivery robots and Gaussian Robotics for cleaning robots.
Marianela Nanninga, a Venezuelan-Italian entrepreneur who founded ToDo Robotics in 2020, suggests that the rise of service robots in the food industry is less about replacing labor and more about reducing the overwhelming staff workload in critically under-staffed locations.
“At first,” says Nanninga, “restaurants adopt robots for the ‘wow factor,’ but they soon realize how much these machines help when staff is short or overwhelmed. That’s when they become indispensable.”
What’s Next?
The adoption of service robots began as a novelty. Still, they have quickly become essential to the workflow and customer service at the restaurants that use them.
What will the robots appearing in 2025, 2026, and 2027 look like? What will make automation technology more ubiquitous in food services?
While one can only guess, prototypes showcased at major robotics conventions might indicate that the next trends include more advanced cleaning robots (not only for food services and retail locations but also homes) and half-humanoid robots with more specialized applications.
Advances in general AI may make it possible for robots who look more like people and less like R2-D2 to interact with clients and owners, hold conversations, and take on various daily tasks.
