Mobile restaurant service robots could navigate crowded dining rooms, while humanoid robots may eventually work in kitchens designed for people, using existing refrigerators, ovens, counters, and utensils rather than requiring specialized equipment.
Restaurant robotics could help address labor shortages, improve consistency, reduce repetitive lifting and exposure to hot cooking equipment, and potentially allow kitchens to operate for longer hours. However, restaurants will still need people for food preparation, maintenance, sanitation, customer service, management, and the creativity and personal interaction that are an important part of dining.
The restaurant of the future may be more about creating teams in which humans and robots each perform the jobs they are best suited to do.
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