Meet Maira, Hyderabad’s very own ‘talking robot’ waiter

The robot at the restaurant Chitti in Town was developed by a city-based startup

Hyderabad: The robot says hello, takes you to your table and will chat with you about anything under the sun while you figure out what to eat. If you are a lady, it turns its voice into a woman and it modulates its voice to a child if a kid is speaking to it.

The interactive robot named Maira (Multi-Sensing Intelligent Robotic Assistant) was manufactured in by a city-based company Vistan NextGen. Unlike Robo Kitchen in Jubilee Hills that boasts only line robots that deliver the order at the table moving on magnetic strips, patrons at Chitti in Town can talk to the robot which uses six voice modulations in its interactions. The robot is programmed to see, feel and hear its surroundings so it can rapidly adapt to whatever environment it is placed in.

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“The robot can shake hands, move its head and entertain the customers as they wait for their order to arrive. It uses facial recognition to do this. So if a customer stands in front of the robot and says hello, it will reply and start a conversation with them. This is the first-of-its-kind robot in India. Apart from this, we have also provided the restaurant with two autonomous robots that perform actions based on their perception of the environment,” explains Rama Raju Singam, founder, Vistan NextGen.

According to him, the robot Maira is also programmed to respond to any name chosen for them and will respond to the commands. The company has received orders for more robots for similar concept restaurants that will be opened in Warangal, Khammam and Karimnagar in the near future.

The multicuisine restaurant, Chitti in Town is owned by Ganesh Reddy, Teja Kiran Srikanth and Padmaja Goud. “The planning for the conceptual restaurant took over eight months. The pandemic showed us the advantages of launching a restaurant with interactive robots. Apart from the novelty of the robots, they also promise minimal human contact to diners,” says Teja Kiran, one of the partners at the restaurant.

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