Alibaba brings robot waiters to Import Expo in Shanghai

Alibaba's grocery supermarket chain Hema is using robots to deliver fresh imported food to guests at the China International Import Expo, which will be held in Shanghai from November 5 to 10.

Customers have their meals delivered by a robot at the Hema store at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai on October 12, 2018. The convention center will be the site of next month's China International Import Expo. [Photo: VCG]

A 3,000-square-meter Hema store started trial operations at the expo venue last month, providing imported food such as seafood, fruits, wine, and snacks. The store will be manned by robots that deliver food and meals to customers.

Customers can scan the QR code at their table and order what they like through the Alipay or Hema apps. Once the food is ready, the robot will deliver it to the customer's table within 30 minutes. The fattest delivery time is just 40 seconds.

After finishing their meal, the customer can press a "recycle" button, the robot will return to the table, the customer puts their dirty plates back into the robot, and they are taken away for cleaning.

Customers have their meals delivered by a robot at the Hema store at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai on October 12, 2018. The convention center will be the site of next month's China International Import Expo. [Photo: VCG]

The robots are designed to avoid obstacles along their routes, and they drive themselves to a charging station when they are running low on battery power.

The delivery robots will be officially put into service on November 5 when the Import Expo opens.

Hema opened its first restaurant with robot waiters in Shanghai back in February. The Import Expo store is expected to offer a more advanced robot customer service experience to customers.