A South African hotel is using robots as attendants to help beat corona.
yes, you read that right. A wealthy district in Johannesburg has opted to use robots as attendants to beat corona. Of course it’s literally impossible to leave the matters of humanity to a few robots but at the same time what are the chances that a robot could infect you? literally none.
In the hotel there are three robots known as Lexi, Micah and Ariel. This idea is not entirely new and was probably borrowed by the Japanese restaurant known as “Henn’na”became the first to be fully staffed by machines.
What’s unique about this plan?
In some hotels in Tokyo the robots attend to patients who experience mild COVID-19 symptoms however for a hotel in South Africa the whole concept might just flop if the citizens feel that their jobs are at risk. Although the managing director says that he thinks the robots will change the space but will not replace human beings.
Lexi, Micah and Ariel deliver room service, provide travel information and can drag up to 300kg of luggage from the marble-floored lobby to the rooms. If the hotel receives a guest with COVID-19 symptoms, the robots could be deployed instead of people as a precaution.
Otherwise, “guests can choose whether they want to interact with staff members or make use of the self service, which is all controlled by their phone,” Herman Brits, the hotel’s general manager, said.
Additionally the robots can also tell if customers are happy or not by scanning their facial expressions. This helps them manage customers by understanding what they feel about the hotel.