Bear Robotics introduced their innovative service robot “Penny” in May 2017, and since then has gone on to produce two other models: Servi (pictured above) and Servi Mini. Photo via Bear Robotics

Diners at Denny’s in Fresno might find a curious addition to the staff this week.

Silicon Valley-startup company Bear Robotics has announced its plans to roll its first service robot in the Valley to the Denny’s location at 1110 E. Shaw Ave Wednesday.

The rollout will give time for staff to program and prepare the units for service some time the following week, with servers and staff being trained to operate in tandem with the robots, aiming to expedite service to customers and ease heavy workloads on an already strained staff. The location in Fresno will have one robot.

Originally funded in 2017, Bear Robotics’ founder John Ha introduced the company as “The Future of Restaurants” at the National Restaurant Association show in 2018. The following year, the company was selected as a 2019 Kitchen Innovation award winner, and by 2020, a $32 million investment round was completed, pushing the company to its first mass production model named Servi.

“Our founder, John Ha, was a software engineer at Google,” said Breyn Hillman, Territory Account Manager for Central California. While working at Google, Ha opened his own restaurant, and according to Hillman, Ha “Realized how hard it was to own and operate your own restaurant, and how hard it was for the front of the house.”

“There was a need to make the life of a server a lot easier,” she said, reflecting on her own experience as a server at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Fresno.

Hillman said the robot servers will not necessarily affect the amount of employees at restaurants, adding that the robots will act more as a “personal assistant” to employees, assisting in table bussing, food running, and a “patrol mode,” in which the robot acts as a “cocktail waiter,” roaming an establishment with snacks and appetizers.

“You can get as creative as you want with it,” she said. The robots are programmed in a “point A to point B” style, enabling them to carry out a number of services to assist human staff.

Hillman added that the robot servers can help restaurants that are suffering staffing shortages, explaining that the robots have the capability to assist in short-staffed establishments, but she added that the goal is not to replace the human staff, rather assist the existing staff on site.

“You hear ‘robot,’ and you think they’re going to replace people, and that’s really not it at all,” she said. “It’s to assist and to make the server’s life easier.”

Bear Robotics is also in the process of developing other services, with robot assistant servers already operating in several senior living facilities across the country.

The company is also in development of a hotel service robot with the ability to operate elevators and directly reach guests at their rooms.

Currently, Bear Robotics operates in over 1,000 establishments, and as of 2022, the servers have traveled over a combined 247,000 miles.

As for the company’s goals in 2022, the aim is to expand their service throughout the country.

“A lot of our sales reps were [servers] so we really know the struggle of it, and we believe in this product and how it can really transform restaurants, senior living, soon-to-be hotels; it really allows for the server to give better service,” Hillman said. “Our goal is just to expand and get us out there.”

While the market is sparse for the time being, Bear Robotics does have several competitors. However, according to Hillman, Bear Robotics is the only US-based company in the robot service industry.

Being US based, she said the company is able to repair and service robots both remotely and on-site, adding a human element to an automated industry.

“Just being US based, we offer a lot of benefits that other competitors don’t as far as support,” she said.

The Fresno area is hoping to see expansion of these robots in the coming months and years, with Chili’s restaurants nationwide recently seeing a rollout of service robots. Fresno-area Chili’s will likely see service robots within the next several years.

“As we expand selling these robots in the Central Valley, this will be a great place to come see it live,” Hillman said.