SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento restaurant is easing its staffing struggle by using robots to deliver food from the kitchen to tables.
Peter Kim, the owner of Oz Korean BBQ in Sacramento and Elk Grove, has struggled to keep up with the demand at his restaurant.
"We have been struggling with staffing shortages ever since the pandemic protocols for indoor dining were lifted," Kim told ABC10. "Many guests have returned to dining in, but same amount of people are not looking to come back to work."
Kim said they began testing out two robot servers to help with their staffing problem in mid-August.
According to Kim, the two robots are equipped with motion sensors, smart cameras, 3D scanners and an AI learning system, which help them map out the layout of the restaurant. Kim said the robots are able to work together to deliver food from the kitchen to guest tables without colliding with anything throughout the restaurant.
Kim said they were pleased with the results of their trial run, which ultimately led them to purchasing the robots.
"With restaurants, it is hard to always predict when you'll be busy, so it's nice to have help on standby when needed," Kim said. "For the tasks that the robots can handle, it did definitely help alleviate some strain on the workforce shortage."
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