COVID-19 In South Korea: Robot Barista Starts Serving Cafe Visitors

Photo illustration (Lukas / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - South Korea is preparing to enter a new stage of fighting against COVID-19. Cafes in Daejeon are the pioneers of employing robot baristas to minimize the spread of the virus.

Launching Reuters, Vision Semicon Research Director Lee Dong-bae revealed that the presence of robots can help people implement intensive distancing rules. In addition, people can also enjoy the comfort and safety of sipping a cup of coffee without being haunted by the fear of COVID-19.

"Our system processes people's requests from orders to delivery. In order to facilitate the movement of the robot, the tables are arranged at a distance according to the will of the physical distancing campaign," he said.

Uniquely, this system allows the barista robot to make 60 different types of coffee. In fact, customers can communicate directly with the robot barista through their respective devices to order drinks. After ordering, the robots will deliver the order directly while greeting customers directly.

"Here's your almond rooibos tea latte, please enjoy. Even better if you stir it," said the robot as the customer reached for his drink on the tray.

The speed of the robot in processing order data is quite fast. This is because ordering six drinks only takes about seven minutes to be served.

Even so, the work is not entirely done by robots. The role of human labor is also needed to perform several tasks such as cleaning and refilling materials for making coffee.

According to the plan, in the future, Vision Semicon will supply 30 robots this year. The target will be accelerated by Vision Semicon as business owners have received support in developing robots from state-run science institutions.

As a result, South Koreans generally welcome this. A student, Lee Chae-mi, for example. The 23-year-old man thinks that the presence of robots can help many people to get their orders. However, he was a little worried because the presence of robots could reduce the role of humans.

“Robots are fun and easy because you don't have to take your orders. But, I'm also a little worried about the job market because a lot of my friends are doing part-time jobs in cafes and these robots will replace them, "he said.

So far South Korea has confirmed 11,265 cases of COVID-19 transmission. Among them, there were 269 cases died.