SINGAPORE: Remember when robots roamed around food courts collecting your used crockery? 

Many of these robots have since disappeared. Some have been converted to tray-collection stations, with only a "smart tray return" label on their side indicating their mobile past. 

Tray-return robots began appearing at food courts, hawker centres and coffee shops as early as 2016. They were among the new technologies introduced at traditional food and beverage venues in the push towards more productive or manpower-lean business models.

These roving robots were meant to make it more convenient for diners to return their used crockery at a time when doing so was still optional. 

In recent years however, stationary tray-return points have taken over.  

Over the past week, CNA visited six food courts, coffee shops and hawker centres islandwide that used to have tray-return robots. None appeared to be using these robots anymore.

The six places – Happy Hawkers in Tampines and food courts at Punggol Plaza, Toa Payoh HDB Hub and Fusionopolis are under Koufu; Jurong West Hawker Centre and Chang Cheng Mee Wah Coffee Shop in Choa Chu Kang are under Chang Cheng Group. Both companies were heavily featured in news reports years ago for deploying new technologies such as tray-return robots to boost productivity at their food establishments.

Koufu, which operates a chain of food courts, coffee shops and eateries across Singapore, told CNA that the tray-return robots were supplied by one of its cleaning companies. None of the robots are in use at any Koufu outlet currently.

A spokesperson declined to comment on why it stopped using the robot, but said the company was "always exploring automation to increase productivity".

...