Karachi diners ordering a pizza at The Sicilian restaurant are now being served by the robot waitress Karachi diners are meeting for the first time: a waitress with a spherical white head, blinking red LED eyes and a black shawl draped around her neck like a dupatta. Her name is Robia, and she is a robot — built in Pakistan.
Robia and her colleague Jojo wheel between the dining booths of the neon-lit Karachi restaurant, carrying trays of food to waiting families. It is a rare sight in Pakistan, and it is drawing curious crowds from across the city.
Meet the robot waitress Karachi diners meet at The Sicilian
Robia introduces herself as she arrives at a table. “Welcome to Sicilian. My name is Robia,” she says in an electronic voice, looking down at diners through her blinking red eyes.
She and Jojo are the creations of Pakistani engineer Syed Osama Aziz, who also founded The Sicilian restaurant. The pair wear sleeveless maroon tops with long black shawls, and their dark visors resemble motorcycle helmets.
The robots do not work alone. A human waiter loads the tray and steers the machine to the right table using a mobile phone app or a remote control. When Robia arrives, customers lift the food off the tray themselves — or wait for a member of staff to help.
Built in Pakistan, mostly with local parts
Aziz developed the robots — including the robot waitress Karachi diners meet — through his robotics company, Cobot, with help from friends. Most of the parts were manufactured locally: he designed the circuit boards and wrote the programming in his own laboratory, importing only some electronic components from abroad.
His workshop is in Multan, in central Punjab, where the machines are manufactured. Getting hold of the equipment was the hardest part, Aziz told the AFP news agency.
Each robot reportedly costs about Rs400,000 — roughly $1,500 — and Aziz has also supplied the machines to educational institutions and restaurants in other cities.
What the robots cannot do — yet
For now, Robia and Jojo are delivery machines with personality rather than full replacements for waiters. They do not take orders, cook food or clear tables, and they can shut down when their batteries run out — although their lights may stay on.
Aziz has bigger plans. He told AFP he wants to add camera-based processing and image processing, so that a robot could recognise a returning customer, remember what they ordered last time, and suggest dishes accordingly.
In China and other East Asian countries, robots already shuttle food to customers in chain restaurants, greet hotel guests and clean floors. In Pakistan, they remain a novelty — which is exactly why diners are flocking to see them.
Diners travel across Karachi to meet them
Families are coming to The Sicilian specifically to watch the robot waitress Karachi diners meet at work. Children reach out to touch them while their parents take photographs and selfies.
“The best thing about it is that it introduces itself,” customer Ahmer Zameer told AFP, adding that the robot also “tells you what things you can order.”
Young customer Sonia Dilosker said she was impressed by the machines’ appearance — and preferred being served by them “because it is a machine and without any emotions.”
Staff say the novelty has brought a surge in customers. “Our business has grown. People are coming from far away for this. They have seen a robot for the first time here,” staff member Hellen told AFP.
From a Multan pizzeria in 2017 to Karachi today
This is not Aziz’s first robot waiter. In 2017 he built what was reported as Pakistan’s first robot waitress for a pizza outlet in Multan, after about eight months of work and an investment of around Rs0.4 million. That early machine weighed 25 kilograms, could carry up to five kilograms of food, and ran for 12 to 13 hours on a single charge.
Nine years on, Robia and Jojo are the polished successors — and the robot waitress Karachi diners meet is serving a city that cannot seem to get enough of them.
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