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Mandarin restaurant hires first robot employee

Blue Bamboo added 'Booey' to the team in June

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — In the last year, Blue Bamboo moved to a new location off San Jose Blvd. Owner, Dennis Chan says this was their chance to build the restaurant from the ground up.

“Were able to build a dream restaurant with all the latest technology and the most modern ways of doing things," Chan said. 

More recently, adding a new addition to his wait staff, 'Booey' the robot. 

“We decided that we could use the robots as food runners and that way our servers could spend more time at the tables instead of running back and forth," Chan said. 

The Bear Robotics robot carries plates of food from the kitchen to the desired table. Making turns and loops, stopping when things are detected in its way. 

"It knows when to stop it knows where to go," Chan said “We talk about our robot as if it’s a person and we’ve really given it a personality.”

After 17 years in the business, Chan says he'd never imagined having a robot food runner.

“We would never have imagined being able to show off a robot in our restaurants," Chan said. “We’re really excited to be the first to have this technology here. There’s other technology we’ll explore and we can’t wait to see what else the future brings.”

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