The invention was the brainchild of Nguyen Quoc Phi in Hanoi’s Dong Da District. Phi said that he had travelled abroad and once when in Japan, he came to a coffee shop served by robots.

In March this year, he and some of his friends worked to produce a similar robot and the robot named Morta was completed in October and then they opened the coffee shop.

The robot is controlled by a touchscreen. It uses a battery which can run for 15 hours consecutively with a charging time of six hours and moves along a metal line on the floor.

The robot weighs more than 20 kilos and 1.3 metres high. It is created with a total cost of nearly VND200 million (USD9,000). The robot can even speak some fixed sentences to greet and thank customers in several languages, including English and Japanese.

Phi added that his group wanted to inspire Vietnamese young people with real-life automated reality.

Electronic engineer Do Trung Thanh said the Morta was their greatest achievement after many failures.

Many customs took photos of the robot