Robots help out at retirement village

Contract caterer Elior UK is trialling the use of BellaBot, a food delivery robot supplied by GW Projects, which is helping out a retirement village where Elior provides catering services.
BellaBot delivers trays of food to the tables and assists with clearing the tables, freeing up the Elior team to spend more time interacting with the residents. The robot can deliver four 10 kg trays at once – twice the load capacity of manual delivery – and can deliver up to 400 dishes a day.
As well as helping to deliver food, BellaBot can also sing and tell jokes and interact with the residents and their guests. Over the Queen’s Jubilee weekend, BellaBot entertained children by telling jokes and singing, including the National Anthem and by purring when they petted her.
Laura Tighe, managing director of health, care and retirement living for Elior UK, said: “We are delighted to welcome BellaBot to our team which supports Elior’s strategy to introduce new and innovative technology to enhance its service and the customer experience. BellaBot has been very well received by the residents and their guests. The main benefit we have seen is that resident engagement has stepped up as BellaBot’s assistance with delivering food has enabled our staff to spend more time chatting with the residents. At a time when it is challenging to recruit staff, it is amazing to be able to provide our colleagues – through the adoption of robotic technology – with some additional support so that they can focus on customer service.”
A resident in the retirement village, commented: “It is great fun having BellaBot in the restaurant – I have booked my birthday celebrations in the restaurant so Bella can sing Happy Birthday to me.”
Elior stated that it is exploring other opportunities where robotics can be deployed in the retirement living sector and in other parts of the business, including cleaning services.