Cafe in Japan Hires Paralysed Employees to Control Robot Servers

Ten people with conditions like ALS and other spinal cord injuries are currently employed at Dawn, a cafe in Tokyo. From home, the paralysed employees operate a 4-foot robot that communicates, moves around and handles objects in the Dawn (Diverse Avatar Working Network) cafe.

The cafe, located in the Japanese capital’s Akasaka District, is a joint effort between Ory (a startup that develops robotics for disabled people), All Nippon Airways (ANA), the Nippon Foundation, and the Avatar Robotic Consultative Association (ARCA).

For their service, each operator is paid 1,000 yen ($8.80) an hour, the standard wage for part-time work in Japan.

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Ten people with conditions like ALS and other spinal cord injuries are currently employed at Dawn, a cafe in Tokyo. From home, the paralysed employees operate a 4-foot robot that communicates, moves around and handles objects in the Dawn (Diverse Avatar Working Network) cafe.