Hospitality by humanoid wins customers’ hearts

Shivamogga: When hotelier L Raghavendra and his son Suhan decided to bring a humanoid for their restaurant Upahara Darshini at Vinoba Nagar, little did they know that the robot, with the appearance and qualities of a human, would attract not only kids but also elders. After a picture shared on social media went viral, people of all age groups are rushing to take selfies with the fully atomatic humanoid which is yet to be named.
Speaking to TOI, Raghavendra, who is in the hotel industry for about 20 years said, “We had been to Vijayawada to buy equipments for our restaurant when we saw a humanoid up for sale. We took a selfie with it and decided to buy it as it would entertain children. In China several hotels use humanoids and we thought of to setting up one in our restaurant. We have heard that a restaurant in Chennai has adopted this model to attract customers.”
Presently, the robot, created in China, has been programmed to welcome guests in Kannada and English — ‘Welcome to Upahara Darshini. Please have some water.’
“We need some time to programme the humanoid further. We have spent about Rs 5.5 lakh to set it up,” said Raghavendra.
Suhan, a II PU student of Sri Aurobindo Pre-University College is currently training the restaurant staff to manage the humanoid. “The humanoid has been programmed and the commands are given through the mobile phone. It is relatively a novel concept in India and the response by customers is overwhelming,” he said.