AI Robots serve restaurant customers in South Korea

Seoul: A burger shop in the South Korean capital is a bit different from typical fast food restaurants: Its key staff are robots.

From order to pick-up, customers don't need a single face-to-face interaction.

All they need to do is to click the menu they want on a kiosk touchscreen, pay and wait for a serving robot to bring their takeout bag to the pick-up spot.

While waiting for their food, customers take photos or stare with curiosity at the capsule-shaped robots, reminiscent of the popular minions characters from the animated film Despicable Me.

The yellow and black accent colours of the No Brand Burger restaurant also give the place the look of a toy shop.

This is the first time I've actually seen such robots, so they are really amazing and fun, said Shin Hyun Soo, a 31-year-old office worker trying out the service.

The restaurant's human manager, Bae Eunyoung, explained the process: When a customer orders at the kiosk, it is automatically sent to the kitchen.

There, an automated cooking machine kicks in and heats the buns and patties.

The human staff do have a role to play, Bae explained, adding toppings to the cooked ingredients before wrapping them and passing them over to a robot to serve. AGENCIES