Delivering Food by Drone
A Singapore restaurant plans to use drones(无人机)to transport food and drinks the kitchen to a wait station near customers' tables.
Infinium Robotics, the Singapore company that's developing the drones for restaurant chain Timbre, has spent the past two weeks testing the technology at the restaurant before it opens each night for business and hopes to have it in place by the end of the year.
But how does the drone know where to land? What if someone bumps into the drone or is standing in its way? "There's no chance at all it will hit anything," says Infinium Robotics chief executive Junyang Woon.
The drones automatically charge while (wait)in the kitchen. the chef puts an order on the drone, he hits a button on a keypad and the drone automatically flies to one of two wait stations. Sense-and-avoid technology (build)into the drone won't allow it to land at the wait station if anything is in its way. The drones (equip)with sonar and an infrared sensor, too.
A waiter then removes the food or drink from the drone and hits a button sends it back to the kitchen. The drones, weighing a little over five pounds, carry just over four pounds of food. Infinium Robotics is working on a model that will carry twice as much food.
"Its job is to help the waiters to reduce some of their boring tasks," Woon said. "If they let the robots do the job, they can concentrate on interacting with customers to bring about (high) customer satisfaction and dining experience." Since it drew recent media attention, Woon (hear) from resorts and restaurants in 10 countries, including the United States.