You may have already seen them in restaurants: waist-high machines that can greet guests, lead them to their tables, deliver food and drinks and ferry dirty dishes to the kitchen. Some have cat-like faces and even purr when you scratch their heads. But are robot waiters the future? It's a question the restaurant industry is increasingly trying to answer. Many think robot waiters are the solution to the industry's labor shortages.

WALL-E may have roamed the earth alone 800 years in the future. But now a lookalike robot could be coming to the UK as early as 2023. And rather than just pick up litter like the Disney creation, this one is all-action. Aeolus Robotics claim their android can act as a security guard, a hospital cleaner and even take over the job of staff in care homes. Aeolus Robotics claim their android, named'Aeo', can act as a security guard, a hospital cleaner and even take over the job of staff in care homes Use pincher arm to open doors, operate lifts or close windows.

Uber may be looking to replace some human drivers with robots after facing court battles from workers seeking pay raises. The ride-hailing giant is employing self-driving robots to deliver food items for its UberEats from select merchants in Miami, Florida and is set to expand into more cities next year. The sidewalk-traveling, six-wheeled robots are from Cartken, which former Google engineers founded, and feature a trunk capable of carrying up to 24 pounds of cargo. The partnership, announced Thursday, comes two days after a Manhattan judge granted Uber's bid to temporarily block a pay hike for ride-share drivers from going into effect next week. The pay raise would have increased by 23.93 percent per mile. Uber is said to take about 25 percent commission from drivers.

Uber has unveiled plans to trial autonomous'sidewalk robots' to deliver food to people's doorsteps. The US ride-hailing giant announced the idea as part of a raft of new features and services for its customers. These included an option for those in certain cities to specifically request a ride in an electric car, which Uber said was part of its global commitment to becoming a zero-emissions mobility platform by 2040. Comfort Electric is now available in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Dubai, with more cities to come soon. The sidewalk robot concept is one of two autonomous delivery pilot programs being trialled in California.

Ford's autonomous delivery experiments now include potentially vital services. The automaker is launching a six-month pilot project that will have self-driving shuttles bring fresh food to residents of a Detroit senior living center, the Rio Vista Detroit Co-Op Apartments, that might otherwise have challenges fetching groceries. The free-of-charge offering will have the "low-speed" vehicle drive a fixed route between a Ford facility and Rio Vista, with a safety driver and a remote team ready to take over if necessary. Notably, the shuttle doesn't involve Ford's partner Argo -- this is a distinct effort between Ford's in-house autonomy team and the company's Quantum Signal AI subsidiary. The two have modified the shuttle to help with packing and unloading food, but it's otherwise a stock machine (as far as autonomous shuttles go, at least).

Grubhub is teaming up with Russian tech giant Yandex to deliver food to students and others on US college campuses with the help of autonomous robots. The companies have agreed a multi-year partnership, and the robots will start dropping off orders on select campuses this fall. Grubhub works with more than 250 colleges across the country. Yandex says its robots can access areas and navigate obstacles that cars cannot. It will be able to deliver food in mainly pedestrian areas and the robot delivery service will be integrated into Grubhub's app.

"Robotics technology is rapidly moving out of the lab and into the real world." As society looks for ways to reduce human exposure to novel coronavirus, digital technology has emerged front stage center. Computers, smartphones, videoconferencing tools and cloud-based services have curtailed the need for people to congregate, and risk becoming sick or dying. Yet, for many tasks -- tending to patients in hospitals, managing grocery stores, delivering food -- social distancing is not an option. Human workers can't escape the risk of being exposed to COVID-19.

China is deploying robots and drones to remotely disinfect hospitals, deliver food and enforce quarantine restrictions as part of the effort to fight coronavirus. Chinese state media has reported that drones and robots are being used by the government to cut the risk of person-to-person transmission of the disease. There are 780 million people that are on some form of residential lockdown in China. Wuhan, the city where the viral outbreak began, has been sealed off from the outside world for weeks. The global death toll from coronavirus topped 2,100 people this week, with over 74,000 infected.

For instance, Meituan's robot can move through a multi-story building and deliver orders to the customer's doorstep, though a human deliveryman is still needed to bring the food to the building, Xia said, according to CNBC's translation of his remarks in Chinese. He said this will save approximately five to seven minutes per delivery -- that's about one to two Chinese yuan ($0.14-$0.28) The company's robots have already delivered thousands of orders, added Xia. The eyes of ZMP's robot, named CarriRo Deli, "can express rich expressions and communicate with people by voice," the company's manager, Hiromasa Iwano, told CNBC in an email. These innovations in robotics are meant to tackle labor shortages and reduce delivery time.

At George Mason University in Virginia, a fleet of several dozen autonomous robots deliver food to students on campus. At George Mason University in Virginia, a fleet of several dozen autonomous robots deliver food to students on campus. George Mason University looks like any other big college campus with its tall buildings, student housing, and manicured green lawns – except for the robots. This Northern Virginia university recently set up several dozen meal delivery robots from Starship Technologies to make it easier for students to access food. Multiple colleges across the country have deployed delivery robots – including University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., and Northern Arizona University – but George Mason University is the first college in the United States to incorporate robots into its student dining plan. The school is partnering with food service provider Sodexo for the program.