Robot serves drinks at coffee shop in northern Thailand

A robot serves drinks at a coffee shop to help with social distancing in northern Thailand.

Footage shows the robot waiter taking food to the customers while a staff controlled it from the bar in Lampang province on May 6.

The two-foot-tall machine has a platform to safely carry the food from the kitchen to the tables where people are waiting for their orders.

The robot was designed by a group of students from the Chaehom Industrial and Community Education College to help food shops implement Covid-19 safety rules during the pandemic.

Professor Suranet Dechburam said the robot was controlled using an app that could be installed in smartphones so anyone could operate the waiter.

He said: ‘Anyone could operate the robot through an app.

The invention was designed to reduce physical contact between servers and customers to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

‘Lampang is not a red zone for Covid-19 so people are still allowed to dine inside cafes or restaurants.

We took this opportunity to debut our robot waiter.’ The robot is now being developed as medical equipment that could help hospitals deliver food and medicines to Covid-19 patients.

Thailand recorded 4,887 new Covid-19 cases today (May 13) and 32 deaths, taking the total number of infections recording since the pandemic began to 93,794 with 518 dead.