A robot named ‘Ananya’ brings food to the table at Mother’s Hut restaurant near Krishnanagar, in Nadia district.
A robot girl, Ananya, serves yummy food to the foodies who come to their Mother’s Hut Restaurant. The eatery is located near Krishnanagar in Nadia district, around 120 km from Kolkata, beside National Highway 12 (formerly NH 34).
Ananya starts negotiating by asking people “Please let me go. Please don’t stand in the way and allow me to serve.
The white coloured robot is about 5 feet tall with a rectangular ‘face’ which doubles up as a sensor-driven digital screen to help the kitchen staff transport food ordered by customers sitting at a particular table. Customers used their phones to scan and order food.
This handless robot has wheels. Ananya carries four vertically placed shelves on which it carries the food. A human staff, waiting at the table, takes out the food from the tray to serve it to the enraptured patron. The robot can move right or left to go to its target if it encounters an obstacle without falling over or spilling the food.
“We have four robots, all named Ananya (Invincible), to project the resilience and fighting spirit of every woman. Our restaurant is run entirely by women hailing from the neighbourhood. They take care of everything – from housekeeping to cooking, from handling the cash counter to helping the reception desk. So, we thought Ananya would be the most appropriate name,” said Subhankar Mondal, manager of Mother’s Hut restaurant.
Mondal further said that the restaurant is rapidly gaining popularity, drawing customers from the city as well as other towns like Barasat, Barrackpore, Kalyani, Ranaghat, and Berhampore to enjoy the pleasure of having a robot serve them.
“It is amazing. I have also taken a selfie with the robot,” said the class 4 student who originally lives in Muscat. Another patron, Asif, a medical student from AIIMS Kalyani, said he and his friends have been a regular to the restaurant for the past few years but admits that his excitement with eating out has shot up since the introduction of robots.
About two months ago, the Ananya robots became part of the restaurant staff. The manager of the restaurant disclosed that the name also pays homage to Ananya, one of the original three restaurants’ employees.
“Credit was due to Ananya, who was forced to quit her job on account of her marriage elsewhere, for the current success of our restaurant,” said Mondal. He informed that the eatery had a modest beginning back in 2013 and grew over the years.
The manager refused to identify the company but claimed that the restaurant’s IT staff worked with a Desi software major to create the robots.
Mondal also mentioned that additional robots will be deployed within a year, allowing the restaurant to fully automate all of its operations with the use of artificial intelligence, from cooking to plating and serving patrons.
The restaurant’s co-owner, Anath Bandhu Garai added, “This will lessen the work pressure on our women staff allowing them to make important value addition to service. Once this kitchen automation happens in a year’s time, you can label us the only AI-driven, AI-themed restaurant in the country’s easter eastern region”
Some customers stated that while it is a nice and wise initiative, nothing can take the place of a human emotional connection.
