PUDU BellaBot

BellaBot is the tray-carrying delivery robot that, more than any other machine, taught the public what a service robot looks like. Launched by Pudu Robotics of Shenzhen in 2019, it has become a fixture of restaurants, hotels and hospital corridors across Asia and Europe - the wheeled column with a cat's face on a 10.1-inch screen that rolls up to the table carrying somebody's noodles. The engineering is unglamorous and effective. Four trays take 10 kg each, 40 kg in total, with infrared sensors under each shelf so the robot knows when a dish has been lifted off. It navigates by dual SLAM, combining a lidar with three RGBD cameras for 3D omnidirectional obstacle avoidance, and can be set up either with laser positioning or with ceiling markers - the latter being the option most restaurants choose because it survives crowds and rearranged furniture. Cruising speed is adjustable between 0.5 and 1.2 m/s, the automotive-grade suspension keeps soup in the bowl, and the swappable battery gives about 13 hours unloaded with a 4.5-hour recharge. The robot is 129 cm tall and weighs 55 kg. What set BellaBot apart commercially was the part that is not engineering at all. Pudu gave it a bionic cat face with animated expressions, ears that respond to touch, and a voice - a deliberate decision to make the machine an attraction rather than an appliance, and one that turned out to matter for restaurants selling an experience. The concept has since been copied across the whole category. Pudu does not publish a list price; through distributors the robot has been quoted at around EUR 12,900 in Europe and USD 15,900 in the United States, with rental plans from roughly EUR 369 a month. A later BellaBot Pro revision adds a larger display and advertising functions.

▸Videos

No videos yet.

▸Reviews