Robot Café Establishment in Aarhus

Aarhus Municipality is developing initiatives to support individuals in vulnerable positions, focusing on inclusion, rehabilitation, and employment. To aid this effort, the Municipality plans to establish a 'robot café' within existing café facilities. In this café, avatar robots will take orders from guests and will be remotely operated by individuals who, due to physical or mental challenges, cannot attend a job that requires physical presence. This initiative targets individuals with disabilities who are unable to work in person, allowing them to participate in the workforce from home. The goal is to combat loneliness and isolation while creating job opportunities for this specific group. The robot café will be set up in an existing café located in Generationernes Hus, operated by the non-profit organization FO-Aarhus. To establish this robot café, the Municipality intends to enter into a contract (referred to as the 'Operator Contract') without a tender process with a consortium consisting of Teknologi i Praksis and OryLab inc. The Operator Contract will cover various components, including: rental of robots, servicing of robots, project management, and training of operators (the individuals who will remotely control the robots). The Municipality plans for the robot café to initially operate as a pilot for 6 or 12 months, with the stated contract value calculated for a 12-month period. The Municipality reserves the right to make the robot café a permanent arrangement after the pilot period, which would increase the value of the Operator Contract (estimated at 21,803,680.00 DKK excluding VAT over a 48-month period).