Robots: What can't they do these days? Residents of Shanghai, China's largest city, are currently being captivated by a pair of ramen-slinging robot chefs that have taken up residence at a new restaurant, reports Shanghaiist.
Toyako Robot Ramen owner Liu Jin shelled out 1 million yuan ($152,000) for the robot duo, which he's named Koya and Kona. "You don’t get any problems with robots. They’ll never ask for leave and they won’t get sick," he tells Shanghai Daily of his metallic employees. While they aren't quite capable of pulling noodles from scratch, the impressive robot arms do handle just about every other aspect of preparing a ramen bowl — boiling water, cooking noodles, and portioning the soup with appropriate garnishes such as eggs and meat — in just 90 seconds.
But as impressively high-tech as the ramen bots may seem, they're not actually a new invention: Similar robots have been in use in Japan since way back in 2009. And robot restaurants are already all the rage in China; there's even one inspired by the Disney Pixar film Wall-E.
