Many restaurants were already using automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and robots before the outbreak of Covid-19. Now, the post-pandemic reality with social distancing and hygiene practices have taken automation in the global restaurant industry further and deeper into advanced technologies. To get an idea of what the dining experience may look like in the near future, here are a few examples of robots showing up for work in restaurants around the world this year.

The world’s first fast-food burger-grilling robot, called Flippy, will be closely watched as it starts work at one of White Castle’s outlets in September. Flippy, which uses AI to decide when to flip a burger, is expected to reduce the amount of time that humans spend on tasks such as grilling and frying.

Proponents of robots in the food industry say this will prevent the spread of food-borne pathogens. But automation inevitably leads to concerns about jobs being taken away from humans.

A café in Daejeon, South Korea, is using a robotic arm that can make up to 60 types of coffee drinks and a serving robot to deliver the drinks to customers. An order of six drinks takes seven minutes to complete. The sole human employee at the café is responsible for cleaning and refills.

In Japan, fast-food chain Mos Burger will welcome a new employee, a remote-controlled robot called OriHime, later this year. OriHime will work the register at Mos Burger’s Osaki branch in Tokyo, but she will be operated by a human employee in the Osaka Prefecture and another in the Hyogo Prefecture.

According to the company, these employees are unable to leave their homes due to illnesses. OriHime’s responsibilities will include taking orders and answering questions about the menu. Her manufacturer, Tokyo-based Ory Lab, installed robots that were controlled remotely by paraplegics, who operated them using their eyes, in another café in 2018.

Manufactured in Japan and serving American-style fast food, Timea, who made her debut in February, is the first robot worker in a restaurant in Afghanistan. Timea speaks Dari and Pashto, Afghanistan’s two official languages, as well as English. Customers can place orders on her touch panel and receive plates and dishes that she delivers.

GrabTea, the first robotic beverage kiosk in the country, started serving bubble tea made by a robotic arm last year.  Ang Wei Lian, one of the founders of GrabTea, says he and his two partners assembled the robotic arm with parts from Japan, China and Taiwan. If demand for bubble tea falls, the robotic arm can be reprogrammed to make coffee and ice cream. GrabTea is currently located in Gurney Plaza and customers have to wait about 90 seconds for the robotic arm to make a cup of milk tea and about two minutes for a fruit drink. Ang is currently looking for franchisees or investors to open more robotic beverage kiosks around the country.

The label “robot restaurant complex” refers to the size of a restaurant that has a seating capacity of almost 600 diners. Here, more than 20 in-house developed robots perform different roles, from food preparation and cooking to serving. The noodle-making robot, for example, can produce 120 dishes per hour if needed.

Each item on its 200-dish menu can be served in as little as 20 seconds. Launched in June, this robot restaurant complex is the sixth automated restaurant operated by Qianxi Robot Catering Group, a subsidiary of Chinese property developer Country Garden. It seems to be the first restaurant in the world to use robotics in all aspects of running a restaurant and doing so at scale.