Many restaurants, hotels and airports worldwide have used robots to cook food and wait tables. However, this is the first time Vietnam has followed this model.

Located in Lac Trung street, Hanoi, the robotic coffee shop has attracted a large number of customers these days with a robot serving drinks to the tables.

A group of young people have successfully created a robot to serve at a coffee shop in Hanoi.

The coffee shop owner, Mr. Quoc Phi had the initiative after having a meal in a restaurant in Japan. He has cooperated with his friends who are electronic engineers and IT experts to realise his dream. 

The research group has developed a robot named Mortar, which is 130cm tall and 20kg in weight. The robot can work in 15 hours with fully charge. This is the only robot in this cafe. 

When a customer order a drink, the coffee staff will prepare and place the tray on the robot’s hands, choose the table number so it can find the way to the table. 

The magnetic sensor will help Robot Mortar detect a tract to follow. The robot can say simple words such as hello, thank you, please or ask people to give way. Robot Motar will be improved to move smoothly with better communication.

Phi hopes that customers to his cafe will have an experience in space and the use of service robots in Vietnam.

The cafe offers a wide range of drinks such as coffee, tea, joice and smoothie, yoghurt, sweet cake and snacks.

The invention was the brainchild of Nguyen Quoc Phi in Hanoi’s Dong Da District. Phi said that he had travelled abroad and once when in Japan, he came to a coffee shop served by robots.  In March this year, he and some of his friends worked to produce a similar robot and the robot named Morta was completed in October and then they opened the coffee shop.  The robot is controlled by a touchscreen. It uses a battery which can run for 15 hours consecutively with a charging time of six hours and moves along a metal line on the floor.  The robot weighs more than 20 kilos and 1.3 metres high. It is created with a total cost of nearly VND200 million (USD9,000). The robot can even speak some fixed sentences to greet and thank customers in several languages, including English and Japanese.  Phi added that his group wanted to inspire Vietnamese young people with real-life automated reality.  Electronic engineer Do Trung Thanh said the Morta was their greatest achievement after many failures. Many customs took photos of the robot  After serving customers, the robot awaits more work

Photo: VNE/Dan tri

Compiled by Mai Lan