Company orders 20,000 robots to serve tourism-related businesses
Robot Café Restaurant, a local tourism-related services company, has ordered 20,000 robots from UBTech Robotics, a Chinese AI and humanoid robotics for learning company, with the aim of expanding its learning centres in Thailand, the restaurant’s co-founder Saranpong Daengdej has said.
Chiang Mai and Silom are only two pilot branches at the moment but they will expand to 20 branches by the end of this year. Robot Café Restaurant is expected to expand to 1,000 branches in three years as the franchise is now eyed by many entrepreneurs.
The restaurant aims to serve as learning centres for families and it offers self-service with assistance from robotic cruisers. The robots can speak 30 languages and clear bills by themselves. They can also identify faces, collect data, and analyse clients’ behaviours, which will help to update the menu according to the preferences of the clients.
In 2020, robotic cruises may be able to provide information on tourism and make hotel reservations along with other services such as Tuk Tuk Pass, which will have a partnership with Booking.com. The system now is on trial with hotels in Bangkok and flight services.
The restaurant also has a learning centre for children with 30-40 robots working as playing partners. Their capability varies from teaching kids to build Lego sets to showing how to write command codes to control robots.
UBTech Robotics is also developing robots for Amazon Café and the prototype can be applied to various businesses from hotels to restaurants due to the multilanguage function, Saranpong said.
Many analysts have said that the market for robots for learning purposes will be worth US$1,700 billion in 2023 and it will target children aged 3-13 years old.
