When you walk into 7 Star Dumpling House on Lasalle Boulevard, don’t be surprised if you hear a polite, synthetic voice asking you to get out of the way.
Meet Bella, the New Sudbury restaurant’s brand new robot waiter, who is helping deliver delicious Chinese dishes hot and fresh straight to your table.
“The people enjoy the service,” Zhang said of the restaurant’s inaugural two weeks with its newest robotic employee. “It can make (the experience) more happy for the customer, especially for the kids.”
Standing at just over four feet tall, the Bellabot, with its sleek, modern design and lively touchscreen animations, fits in perfectly with the Lasalle Boulevard location’s upscale contemporary décor.
The robots are manufactured by St. Catherines, Ont., company Sparc Technologies, which also offers robot waiter in a variety of other models alongside the Bellabot.
Equipped with four induction trays for food delivery, the robot uses multi-sensor technology, including cameras and ultrasonic radar to navigate its surroundings and efficiently avoid obstacles.
Once food has been loaded onto the trays, staff use the touchscreen to select the customer’s table, and Bella navigates directly to it. LED lights indicate which dishes belong to which patrons.
“When (the robot) comes to the table, the customer takes out the food, then the machine says, ‘Thank you, enjoy your food,’ and returns back to its place,” Zhang said. “Sometimes it can sing a song. It can have a little communication with the customer, like you can ask ‘what’s the weather like today?’”
According to Zhang, the decision was made to purchase the robot after the owner saw one in action, and heard about the success other restaurants in places like Toronto and Vancouver have had with it.
“This is the first one in Sudbury,” said Zhang. “They (didn’t) have a robot here, but it’s very popular elsewhere, especially due to COVID-19. This machine can deliver the food to that customer. It’s making it more healthy for the people.”
Patrons can do a number of interactions with the robot, including patting between its pointed cat ears to elicit a variety of vocal responses and facial animations. On special occasions, Bellabot will deliver your food with a boisterous rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
Zhang said the robot has been a hit with customers, especially the kids.
“Young people enjoy the service,” he said. “They feel it’s so funny, because this is a new thing for them. Usually, it’s the waiters who sing the song, but now it’s a machine, so it’s a lot of fun.”
The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible through funding from the federal government.
Mia Jensen, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Sudbury Star
Heading into the final weekend of the election campaign, a war of words is continuing to brew between the NDP and the Liberals. While the PC's are continuing to stay on track and nurse a comfortable lead in the polls. Matthew Bingley reports.
The parents of a 19-year-old who died at a Halifax hospital last year are taking legal action against the emergency room doctors who, they say, failed to recognize he had meningitis and provided improper care. In a statement of claim filed at the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia on May 19, Norrie and Kari Matthews allege Dr. Nicholas Sowers and Dr. Ryan Henneberry breached their duties of care "in failing to provide timely and appropriate care" to their son, Kai Matthews, who developed a high fever
In a northeast Calgary gym, two men sit opposite a plank of wood, holding a stick in between them. They each pull as hard as they can, until one lets go and tumbles backward to the ground. This is mas wrestling, a traditional stick pulling game that has roots in the Sakha Republic, in northeastern Russia. It isn't very common in Canada, but Andrew Bolinger hopes to change that. The Calgary man owns a gym that's home to a small but growing community of mas wrestlers. "It's kind of starting from s
'We need to drastically change our approach to mental health,' former U.S. president says at NRA event.
Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.View on euronews
OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada's Supreme Court on Friday upheld a decision by a lower court to speed up the parole eligibility for the man convicted of gunning down six people in a mosque in 2017 and deemed a 2011 law that allowed lengthy parole sentencing as unconstitutional. Canada's top court was adjudicating on the case challenging a 2020 decision by a Quebec court to lower Alexandre Bissonnette's parole eligibility to 25 years from the original sentence that required him to wait much longer for the possibility of parole. The Supreme Court said that such a punishment removes a realistic possibility of parole and called it "incompatible with human dignity."
WH press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the parent of an elementary school student, delivers an impassioned plea for lawmakers to come together to address gun violence. "They should be losing their first teeth not losing their lives," she said.(May 26)
What happens when a political campaign invites people to a public event but then excludes those who don’t agree with the platform? That’s what Doug Ford critics say happened in Hamilton Thursday. And as Seán O’Shea reports it has some people wondering about whether democracy is at risk
PARIS (AP) — For a player who doesn’t consider himself to be a striker, Mohamed Salah is the envy of many forwards with his scoring record for Liverpool. “I don’t play No. 9, I play on the wing,” Salah said. “It’s completely different when you play as a winger.” And yet the Egyptian enters the Champions League final on Saturday with 31 goals in 50 games for this season and as the leading forward in English football. An impressive goal return but one eclipsed by the true No. 9 that Real Madrid wi
The resumption of a murder trial in Moncton has been delayed several more weeks as lawyers explore issues raised by a psychiatrist's testimony about the accused. Calvin Andrew Lewis, 50, is charged with first-degree murder in the May 2, 2020, death of Tina Tingley-McAleer in Hillsborough, south of Moncton. "Nobody is ready to go ahead right now anyway, everyone needs more time," Court of Queen's Bench Justice Robert Dysart said Thursday when the case briefly returned to court. Lewis admitted sta
A 58-year-old man was struck and killed by a falling tree in Hastings County on Saturday as the powerful derecho storm swept through the area, Ontario Provincial Police say. The man had gotten out of his vehicle in a remote area within the Municipality of Marmora & Lake, which is about 50 kilometres north of Belleville, Ont., when he was struck by the tree at about 3:30 p.m., according to Central Hastings OPP spokesperson Const. Barbra Hunter. He was taken to hospital by Hastings-Quinte Paramedi
TORONTO — The Canadian Championship semifinals have been set for June 22 with defending champion CF Montreal playing at Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps hosting York United of the Canadian Premier League. Both games will kick off at 7 p.m. local time. The Montreal-Toronto matchup is a rematch of the 2021 final, won 1-0 by Montreal. Toronto and Montreal, which had byes to start, advanced by defeating HFX Wanderers 2-1 and Forge FC 3-0, respectively. The Whitecaps dispatched two CPL teams in
The mother of a teenage gunman who shot and killed 21 people at a Texas elementary school is apologizing on behalf of her son and begging victims to forgive her. Adriana Martínez Reyes was emotional during her first public comments. (May 27)
Police 'could have gone in faster,' says Javier Cazares, the father of one of the 19 children killed in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Many voters in heavily Democratic Los Angeles are seething over rising crime and homelessness and that could prompt the city to take a turn to the political right for the first time in decades. One of the leading candidates for mayor is Rick Caruso, a pro-business billionaire Republican-turned-Democrat who sits on the board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and is promising to expand spending on police, not defund them. At another time, the high-end mall and resort
Give that spaghetti a little kick of heat in this simple and tasty recipe. Enjoy! Ingredients: 150 grams of pasta 150 grams of tomato sauce 1 chilli extra virgin olive oil garlic powder water Recipe difficulty: 7/10 Steps: Add a pinch of salt Add a pinch of garlic powder and mix In a pan, pour a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil Add 150 grams of spaghetti and spread them over the entire surface Add a chilli Toast the spaghetti in the pan Add 50 grams of tomato sauce and spread it on the spaghetti Then add two tablespoons of the previously prepared sauce Continue to cook the pasta adding the sauce a little at a time, until it reaches the cooking you like best Then let it stick to the bottom of the pan, in this way.
The day before he was found dead of a drug overdose, a package containing $120,000 in $50, $20, and $10 bills arrived at the downtown condo where Ezra Beau Sametz drew his last breath. B.C.'s director of civil forfeiture is now seeking to confiscate that money as the proceeds of crime — suing Sametz's estate in B.C. Supreme Court and claiming the 38-year-old was a drug trafficker with links to organized crime. The lawsuit details the investigation that led to the Vancouver police discovery of th
Here’s the latest for Thursday, May 26: Officials say Texas school shooter entered through unlocked door; Michigan students walk out to show their support; Shelling in Kharkiv kills at least seven; Kevin Spacey faces new charges in the U.K.
A widespread power outage is affecting the Magdalen Islands and there is no word on when electricity could be restored. More than 4,000 customers lost power at about 5 p.m. Thursday when there was a malfunction at the thermal generating station. The diesel-powered plant is the only source of power for most residents and businesses. "Our teams are investigating to find the source of the outage and re-establish service as quickly as possible," said Hydro-Québec's Andréanne Jean. "Even the power st
As someone who uses a wheelchair, Saleh Sheihk says newer buildings in his Regent Park neighbourhood are mostly accessible, but others need upgrades that aren't always obvious to people who don't have disabilities. "When you go to a place, you don't know what's missing," said Sheikh. "Every place should be accessible for everyone." That's why he joined a group of local volunteers Wednesday to review and rank how accessible Regent Park's public spaces and businesses are. The data they're collecti