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Meet AUSCA, the Singapore-made robot that can serve up eggs

AUSCA the egg-making robot. (Photo: Millennium Hotels)
AUSCA the egg-making robot. (Photo: Millennium Hotels)

Can’t crack an egg? Fret not, because AUSCA can do it for you.

AUSCA, which stands for Automated Service Chef Associate, is the world’s first front-of-house autonomous service chef robot prototype. AUSCA’s job is to make the perfect egg dish for guests at hotel M Social Singapore’s award-winning restaurant, Beast and Butterflies.

All you have to do is place an empty plate on AUSCA and make a selection of how you want your eggs cooked – sunny-side up or omelette. AUSCA will then start making the egg dish by pouring some oil, cracking the eggs and frying them.

After around three minutes, it will place the eggs on the plate and the dish is ready to be eaten. The eggs appear squarish due to the shape of the pan.

As AUSCA is still a chef-in-training, it is only able to prepare sunny-side ups and omelettes at the moment, but will be programmed to offer more variation in the near future.

Under guidance by Republic Polytechnic’s School of Hospitality, AUSCA was developed by Kurve Automation. It received financial support from Singapore Productivity Centre’s Applied Research initiative.

AUSCA comes after its robot sister, AURA, was launched in September. AURA can operate lifts to go between floors, and its sensors allow it to detect obstacles or passengers along the way. AURA has also since been upgraded with a new feature of interacting with guests, besides just delivering items like bottled water, towels, toiletries and amenities to guest rooms.

“The move to implement technology in hospitality is more rapid in Singapore than in other parts of the world. We work with technology and invest in innovation so as to enhance guest experience and be ahead of times,” said Lee Richards, Vice-president of Operations at Millennium Hotels and Resorts, which operates M Social Singapore.

The company is also looking at further introduction of cleaning enhancements to aid and assist the housekeeping department.

With Singapore hotels facing an extremely tight labour market, such collaborative initiatives allow “limited resources to fully concentrate on deepening guest engagement and satisfaction instead of laborious time-consuming tasks,” said Ng Yu Lik, Principal Lecturer from Republic Polytechnic’s School of Hospitality.

Millennium Hotels and Resorts is looking to roll AUSCA out to its other hotels such as the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, M Hotel Singapore, Orchard Hotel Singapore and Studio M Hotel.

Watch AUSCA in action here:

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