Robot waiters take Iraq’s Mosulites again to the longer term

From the rubble of Iraq’s war-ravaged metropolis of Mosul arises the sight of androids gliding forwards and backwards in a restaurant to serve their amused clientele.

“Welcome”, “We wish you a good time in our restaurant”, “We would be happy to have your opinion on the quality of the service”, chime the automated attendants, pink eyes blinking out of their shiny blue and white exteriors.

“On television, you see robots and touch-screen tables in the United Arab Emirates, Spain and Japan,” stated Rami Chkib Abdelrahman, proud proprietor of the White Fox which opened in June.

“I’m trying to bring these ideas here to Mosul.”

The futuristic servers are the results of expertise developed within the northern metropolis, erstwhile stronghold of the Islamic State jihadist group.

“We noticed the idea on social media in multiple restaurant,” stated Abdelrahman, a dentist by occupation.

Voyage to space

Occupied by IS between 2014 and 2017, the northern metropolis of Mosul nonetheless bears the scars of battle.

But at dinnertime, patrons of the restaurant that’s packed each evening can escape from the town on a voyage by means of space.

An astronaut floating throughout the muralled wall units the scene and views of Earth and different planets as seen from space give clients the sense of peering out by means of the portholes of a spaceship.

The ceilings are speckled with glowing constellations.

But the star sights stay the 2 androids, sporting a shawl and black beret, shuttling forwards and backwards throughout the restaurant on rails to ship orders.

As they method, smartphones come out and kids promptly line up subsequent to them for a memento snapshot.

Time for a selfie

The robots are imported, Abdelrahman defined with out giving the supply, including that all the things within the restaurant is digital, together with the 15 touch-screen tables with built-in menus.

A crew from the University of Mosul’s division of mechatronics—integrating a number of fields of engineering in addition to robotics—was accountable for programming and linked a community and server to the restaurant.

Humans haven’t been fully changed by machines.

Four younger waiters are busy selecting up the dishes from the robots’ trays and inserting them on the tables.

Having dinner together with his spouse, Bashar Mahmud was received over. He took a selfie, smiling broadly.

“I’ve travelled abroad and I’ve never seen anything like this, not in Turkey, Jordan or Saudi Arabia,” exclaimed the 50-year-old blacksmith with a salt-and-pepper beard.

© 2021 AFP