(CNN) — Trundling around the hallways of Hong Kong’s Cyberport innovation hub, the little Rice Robot is on a mission.
The stocky white cuboid resembles Star Wars’ R2D2 robot in its build, but has the wide-eyed expression of Pixar’s WALL-E. It’s delivering drinks to patrons of the HFT Life cafe in a compartment in its “head” which is unlocked by the customer using a PIN code sent to their phone.
Customers receive a PIN code, enabling them to open the hatch in Rice’s “head” to retrieve their drinks.
Rice Robotics
Describing Rice as “your friendly neighborhood robot,” Lee hopes it can help the hospitality sector combat labor shortages as the population ages, while appealing to the post-pandemic demand for heightened hygiene protocols.
“Even after COVID, people are paying a lot of attention to contact,” says Lee. He believes “this type of delivery robot will see steady growth in next five and 10 years.”
Pandemic robot boom
With a background in logistics, Lee founded Rice Robotics in 2019 to solve the challenge of “last-mile delivery.”
Supported by the Cyberport Incubation Programme, Lee and his team developed Rice, the first of its three robots. Designed for delivering goods, it can be used in healthcare, retail, logistics and hospitality.
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