Robot now serving up snacks in Barcelona

Interested in getting a pre-made sandwich at the airport but concerned that you might need to take the box off the shelf yourself? SELF, a new concession in Terminal 1 at Barcelona, now offers a robotic arm to handle that for you.

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Customers order from a digital kiosk. Once they’ve paid the arm goes to work. It can pull the boxed sandwiches and sodas from racks behind the counter with its five-fingered hand (split 3/2 rather than 4 plus a thumb like a human), eventually placing them on trays with a slightly awkward motion. It can also place a cup on the coffee machine tray and press the button. Once the order is complete the customer picks it up by scanning their receipt.

None of these tasks appear to happen more quickly or reliably than a human doing the same work. But it is a robot!

While the robot is central to the offering, the company also acknowledges that human staff remains a part of the experience. In addition to stocking the racks with food (and actually preparing the sandwiches), SELF’s humans are “always available to help in the dining room or with takeaway orders.” The company also says the presence of the robotic arm allows the humans to “provide better and more personalized attention to customers.”

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Robotics are cool. And the company says the arm can manage up to six orders at a time, presumably two each for the three delivery lanes. But looking at the video it does not appear to be faster than a human. Quite the opposite, in fact.  But it doesn’t need a bathroom break (though no word on MTBF numbers for the mechanics), so I guess that’s a win?

But if the goal is to eliminate humans from the experience why not just switch back to automats. That’s basically what the racks in the back of the shop are anyways. But now with an expensive robot between them and the consumers.