China's Future R&D and Innovation

Example for China Innovations: Robot Waiters•Dalu Robot Restaurant• Serving hotpots, located in Jinan, Shangdong Province• Opened in December 2010• Restaurant's owner is Zhang Yongpei• He was inspired by space exploration, robottechnology and global innovation•Instead of human waiters, this restaurant has robots• Each robots cost $6,000• They act as entertainers, servers, greeters and receptionists• A female robot decorated with batting eyelashes greets people with an electronic "welcome‚• Future plan is to develop robots with human-like qualities that serve customers at their table andcan walk up and down the stairs.•Problem with human waiters• ‚better service attitude than humans‛• ‚humans can be temperamental or impatient, but they don't feel tired, they just keep working andmoving round and round the restaurant all night‛Innovation in China – 29 Oct 2011 | © 2011 Max von Zedtwitz / max@post.harvard.edu http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101222/ap_on_re_as/as_china_robot_restaurant| 31