In Beijing, a humanoid chef could cook your next meal as city allows robots in catering
Beijing residents will soon be able to taste a wide selection of fried food prepared by robot chefs after the Chinese capital granted the city's first food-service licence for humanoids, clearing regulatory hurdles for use of the technology in the catering sector.
The licence was awarded to robot start-up EncoSmart last Thursday by the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, setting the stage for its Lava humanoid series of robots to replace chefs at catering kitchens across the city, according to a report by state-backed Beijing News on the weekend.
The Beijing-based firm's Lava robots can prepare fried foods such as french fries, which takes two minutes to cook and serve, as well as fried chicken, among others, according to the media report, adding that the system is designed to teach itself to cook new dishes.
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The robots can also recognise various ingredients and determine cooking times to enhance the flavour of the meals, thanks in part to their visual-perception ability.
SoftBank Group Pepper humanoid robots stand behind a counter while a customer places an order at the Pepper Parlor cafe in Tokyo in 2019. Photo: Bloomberg alt=SoftBank Group Pepper humanoid robots stand behind a counter while a customer places an order at the Pepper Parlor cafe in Tokyo in 2019. Photo: Bloomberg>
While catering robots are just taking root in China, EncoSmart founder and chief executive Chen Zhen said tech advancements and the sheer scale of the country's catering industry will help build up the necessary data to improve catering humanoids.
"What we need the most to catch up [with mainstream competitors in Europe and the US] is the accumulation of data [collected] from different use scenarios," Chen was quoted as saying in the Beijing News report.
Beijing's approval of the humanoid catering licence comes amid China's drive to speed up the development and application of humanoid robots in traditional industries.
Humanoids developed by local robot start-ups for tasks such as sorting products on shelves, picking up medicine at pharmacies or doing household chores stole the spotlight at last month's World Robots Conference held in Beijing.
Founded in May 2022, EncoSmart received 40 million yuan (US$5.6 million) in angel financing in April last year, led by the ZhenFund, with participation from local investors including Decent Capital and the venture arm of Joyoung, one of the largest Chinese kitchen appliance makers in China, according to start-up data service Itjuzi.com.
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