Ghost kitchen operator One Kitchen deploys robot in Walmart site
Customers at a ghost kitchen in an Illinois Walmart store have a shiny new beverage server.
One Kitchen, which operates 240 ghost kitchen locations in the U.S., is utilizing an AI-equipped Richtech Robotics ADAM robotic beverage system at a location within a Walmart store in Rockford, Ill. This marks the second installation as part of a planned rollout across 240 One Kitchen locations in the U.S.
[READ MORE: Retailers extend their presence with ghost kitchens]
Equipped with AI technology, ADAM serves a variety of coffee and boba drinks to customers. The robot is expected to serve 100-200 cups of coffee and tea per day.
One Kitchen restaurants feature multiple national and local brands using a single kitchen. The Rockford Walmart will also have a Richtech Robotics Matradee L robotic food server and DUST-E S robotic floor cleaner installed.
"We continue to reach new milestones, this time celebrating the first humanoid drink robot in the state of Illinois," said Matt Casella, president at Richtech Robotics.
Walmart brings ghost kitchen concept to U.S. stores
Walmart is not a newcomer to hosting ghost kitchens in its stores. The discount giant opened its first ghost kitchen operated by platform Ghost Kitchens Brands at its store in Rochester, N.Y. in 2021.
The location built upon an existing collaboration between Walmart Canada and the scalable ghost kitchen operator. Walmart has since expanded its U.S. ghost kitchen fleet, including locations of Nathan’s Famous, best-known for its signature hot dogs and crinkle-cut fries, in U.S. and Canadian stores.
Walmart utilizes floor-cleaning robots
Walmart also has a lot of experience with deploying robots in its stores, although for a different purpose. For the past several years, the discount giant has utilized autonomous, self-driving floor scrubbers as part of its wider efforts to use technology to automate a variety of low-level, repetitive tasks across stores.
Walmart’s partners in the venture include Tennant Company, which is providing its T7AMR (autonomous mobile robot) floor cleaner. The cleaner is equipped with Brain Corp.’s self-driving operating system, BrainOS. The system has the capability to navigate autonomously, avoid obstacles, adapt to changing environments, manage data, generate reports, and seamlessly interact with end-users and other robots.
