A rotot waiter serves food for a couple in a restaurant in Yancheng, northern Jiangsu province.

A restaurant with four robot waiters recently appeared in Yancheng of Jiangsu province. It is the first restaurant of such kind in northern Jiangsu.

The 1.5-meter-tall robots can help customers order food, serve the dishes and even conduct simple conversations with the customers. "Every single motion and word is pre-programmed." said Xu Derong, who is in charge of the restaurant.

The robot waiters were once winners in a national college students' robot competition.