Robot chefs will soon be cooking meals for customers in Beijing after being granted the first food service license of its kind by the authorities, marking a milestone for the catering industry in the Chinese capital.
EncoSmart, a local robotics startup, received this approval from the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation on Sept.12.
The company's Lava series robots will be deployed at catering kitchens across the city to prepare foods such as French fries and fried chicken.
The robots are empowered by state-of-the-art visual perception technology to recognize ingredients and calculate optimal cooking times, promising to deliver fast, consistent, and high-quality meals to customers. Their self-learning capabilities also allow them to adapt and expand their culinary skills over time.
The robot chefs are expected to not only reduce costs and improve efficiency, but also standardize food processing and meet diverse taste preferences of consumers.
City authorities have worked with EncoSmart to introduce new rules needed to regulate the robot work and ensure food safety and hygiene, and will take further steps to set a standard for the AI-powered catering industry.
Beijing grants first catering business license to robot chefs
Beijing grants first catering business license to robot chefs
The combined turnover of China's Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses reached 2.14 trillion yuan (about 302.5 billion U.S. dollars) on Thursday, marking the fourth consecutive trading day with volume exceeding 2 trillion yuan.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.32 percent to 3,301.93 points, while the Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.82 percent lower at 10,471.08 points.
Shares related to coal, wind power and banking sectors led the gains, while the semiconductor, securities and property sectors suffered major losses.
The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, lost 2.95 percent to close at 2,212.91 points Thursday.
China's central bank announced Thursday that it has decided to set up Securities, Funds and Insurance Companies Swap Facility (SFISF), with the initial scale of 500 billion yuan (about 71 billion U.S. dollars) for "the healthy and steady development of the capital market."
The SFISF, which is the first monetary policy tool created by China to support the capital market, will allow eligible securities, funds and insurance companies to use their assets including bonds, stock ETFs and holdings in constituents of the CSI 300 Index as collateral in exchange for highly liquid assets such as treasury bonds and central bank bills, the People's Bank of China said in a statement.
This development sparked interest in high-dividend stocks, with stocks controlled by state capital collectively rising.
More than 10 stocks including Metallurgical China (601618.SH), China Railway Group Ltd. (601390.SH) and COFCO Capital (002423.SZ) hit limit up.
Shanghai, Shenzhen bourses see fourth day with combined turnover topping 2 trillion yuan
