Service robot introduction to a restaurant enhances both labor productivity and service quality

Shimmura, Takeshi; Ichikari, Ryosuke; Okuma, Takashi; Ito, Hiroyuki; Okada, Kei; Nonaka, Tomomi

doi:10.1016/j.procir.2020.05.103

Cited by 51 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The restaurant industry suffers from product losses constantly when the total demand exceeds the service production capacity. Results demonstrate the robots have reduced 20 work hours of the service staff, also improving labor productivity (sales per hour) and reducing the losses dramatically due to lack of production; with the implementation of service robots, the service production sustained a higher and more efficient pace [75]. Current robotics applications will be covered in the next section.…”

Section: Scientific Literaturementioning

confidence: 98%

Service Robots: Trends and Technology

et al. 2021

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The 2021 sales volume in the market of service robots is attractive. Expert reports from the International Federation of Robotics confirm 27 billion USD in total market share. Moreover, the number of new startups with the denomination of service robots nowadays constitutes 29% of the total amount of robotic companies recorded in the United States. Those data, among other similar figures, remark the need for formal development in the service robots area, including knowledge transfer and literature reviews. Furthermore, the COVID-19 spread accelerated business units and some research groups to invest time and effort into the field of service robotics. Therefore, this research work intends to contribute to the formalization of service robots as an area of robotics, presenting a systematic review of scientific literature. First, a definition of service robots according to fundamental ontology is provided, followed by a detailed review covering technological applications; state-of-the-art, commercial technology; and application cases indexed on the consulted databases.

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Section: Scientific Literaturementioning

confidence: 98%

Service Robots: Trends and Technology

et al. 2021

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“…The total 1033 scientific articles found, excluding duplicates, were inspected to keep only studies on a novel machine/system (i) intended to automate physical actions in FS, and (ii) tested in a FS-like realistic scenario. Only 6 studies remained, on waiter robots [69,70,71,72] or Chinese food cooking machines [73,74]. 6 Survey available at https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/NL4S7/.…”

Section: A Search Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In academia, several researchers have been developing robotwaiter prototypes with different sensors and navigation methods [69,70,71,72]. Furthermore, since some years, researchers have been addressing the waiter motion problem 19 [195] [196], by creating balance methods to carry liquids in open containers [197] [198], control strategies to balance bottles/glasses [199] [200], as well as collision-avoidance approaches for ARMs to move near humans [201].…”

Section: ) Add-on Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Foodservice Robotics: a taxonomy of actions of foodservice workers and a critical review of supportive technology

Pereira¹,

Bozzato²,

Dario³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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This paper was motivated by a critical need in foodservice: the ability to produce consistent and high-quality meals ad-hoc, without overloading the workers or harming their health. Robotic and autonomous systems are promising technologies to solve this. However, there is not a unified framework in robotics research focused on the professional foodservice environment. This paper provides two tools for researchers and engineers in this field: (i) a taxonomy of basic actions that foodservice workers perform during their physical tasks; and (ii) a systematic review of mechatronic systems being developed or already in use in foodservice. The taxonomy can be immediately useful to divide research and development by the classes of actions. In addition, we found specific categories of actions that have been rarely automated so far and need further investigation. The results of our review can be readily applied in industry, too: presently, most equipment is a custom-built machine with limited adaptiveness; when systems include industrial robots, cobots are being preferred; the implementation of collaborative operations between humans and robots is not common yet and its applicability may be suitable only for certain contexts; finally, we identify scientific publications introducing adaptive control strategies and movement policies for some actions that can be implemented today to achieve a more robust actuation.

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“…Food quality is the most important component in determining a restaurant's worth [1]. The only way to succeed in the restaurant business is to serve high-quality meals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing a Catering Quality Scale for University Canteens in China: From the Perspective of Food Safety

2022

Sustainability

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This study aimed to create a catering quality scale for university canteens in China. It is based on a questionnaire survey, with a total of 1302 distributed and 844 valid retrieved questionnaires, yielding a 64.8% recovery rate. Catering safety management, employee hygiene management, catering service, food quality, environmental atmosphere, and corporate social responsibility are the six topics primarily covered. In the first step of the scale, the dimensions were developed through EFA. Catering safety management includes kitchen safety, storage safety, and food safety. Employee hygiene management has two dimensions: Employee hygiene knowledge and employee management. Catering service includes service consciousness and a focus on consumers. Environmental atmosphere includes place management and place design. Further, corporate social responsibility encompasses social responsibility and taking care of employees. The second step of the scale involved conducting a CFA, which found a good overall fit of the scale. The results indicated good discriminant validity, convergent validity, and reliability. Moreover, the model comparison showed that the two-level, six-factor model was significantly better than other models.

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Service robot introduction to a restaurant enhances both labor productivity and service quality

Cited by 51 publications

References 4 publications

Service Robots: Trends and Technology

Service Robots: Trends and Technology

Towards Foodservice Robotics: a taxonomy of actions of foodservice workers and a critical review of supportive technology

Developing a Catering Quality Scale for University Canteens in China: From the Perspective of Food Safety

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