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Neepawa’s Boston Pizza restaurant has rolled out its newest employee this week, a robot with four serving shelves intended to assist servers in the restaurant. The robot has been programmed with the layout of the restaurant and can be managed with a cell phone app to move independently around the building. It will determine the best path to any location and can sense obstacles in its way so as to never collide with a customer.

The robot also has a feline look to it, and by stroking the “ears” atop the unit, it will respondl with several different phrases. This has been particularly popular with children, who have enjoyed interacting with the robot.

Says owner Riordan Dennis, the unit will be taking on the more robotic functions of serving, like transporting food and returning dishes to the kitchen, freeing up the servers to be more human. This primarily includes any interactions with the customer and providing high level service.

This is the first robot of its kind in Manitoba, although they have been trialed in other restaurants around Canada.

In general, management says both staff and customers are happy with the way the robot has been functioning, although the praise is not necessarily universal. One of the first concerns they heard was that the service robot would be replacing servers, but the unit is not capable of that kind of sophisticated interaction. Younger employees particularly have been excited about the possibilities of having the robot in the restaurant, particularly around less desirable tasks such as clearing tables. Dennis says that about 80 percent of customers are enjoying or are intrigued by the robot, with the remaining 20 percent split between uncertain about it and general dislike.

The restaurant will be demoing the unit for three weeks, at which point they will decide whether or not it will become a permanent addition.