Watch: Robots serve coffee to guests at Saudi innovation meet
Machines developed as part of students’ graduation projects
Cairo: Robots serving guests were unveiled at a technology innovation gathering hosted by a Saudi university.
Dean of Electronic Services at the King Khalid University Hamed Al Qahtani said two robots are ultilised at a hackathon that opened on Sunday in Abha in south-western Saudi Arabia to serve coffee to the guests and usher them to their places.
“We have two robots developed by the university students as part of their graduation projects,” Al Qahtani told Saudi TV Al Ekhbariya.
One robot is seen in footage pouring the Saudi coffee, a national drink, before serving it to the guests once they stand in front of the smart machine.
The five-day education hackathon, dubbed Eduthon, has drawn the participation of 30 academic institutions and aims to harness young people’s innovative ideas to develop education-orientated digital solutions.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has shown keenness on utilising artificial intelligences in various domains.
Last week, Saudi civil authorities said they have granted the first operational licence for using drones in cleaning building fronts in the kingdom. The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said the licensing was granted to a specialised company that it did not name in a step for introducing the service in the kingdom.
The move aims to enable and provide necessary flexibility to investors to implement cutting-edge operational methods, GACA added.
The licensing is part of the Saudi state agency’s efforts to support the utilisation of drones in several fields including rescue operations, and agricultural spraying.