BEIJING, Oct. 15 -- Chefs may lose their jobs in the future after a cooking robot, currently on display at the ongoing China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF) in Shenzhen, is produced commercially.

AIC, the world's first robot that can cook nearly 200 Chinese dishes, attracted numerous visitors waiting to try its cooking yesterday.

It only took two minutes for AIC to finish cooking Kung Pao Chicken, a Sichuan dish using chicken cubes, peanuts and dried peppers, and the taste surprised visitors.

"It's really good, the chicken is nice and tender," said Liu Xiwu, a visitor who works for an electronics company.

So far, nutritionists have designed and standardized 180 recipes and cooking methods for AIC.

"We will start the production of AIC at the end of next year and now is waiting orders from restaurants and canteens," said Liu Xinyu, president of Pansum Technology Ltd., its manufacturer.

He is currently looking for partners to help him manufacture AIC, produce ready-made ingredients for it and market it.

"A top chef in Shenzhen costs 1 million yuan (130,000 U.S. dollars) annually. If the robot could cook authentic foods, it would reduce our cost," said a restaurant owner surnamed Li.

AIC was one of 50 robots of different functions on display at the fair.

Fan Jianping, president of the Shenzhen Institute of Advance Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said robots with different functions will be popular in 10 years.

"Robot production will be a new industry and popular in households in the future just like PCs and mobile phones," said Fan.

"After China enters an aging society in 2025, there are around 250-350 million elderly people who need care, and the cost of robots will be greatly reduced after they are put into mass production," he added.

Research and development of robots is one focus of the institute, which was established jointly with a Hong Kong university earlier this year.

Visitors to the robot exhibition at Hall 4 witnessed acrobatic performances, dances, cycling and football matches by robots.

At the booth of Robot Condo, six stood in a line and danced to music. They sometimes performed handstands and back flips.

Dongguan BDS Techology brought its Sobot, the world's smallest humanoid robot, to the fair.

Sobot is mainly used for entainment.

"The robot can perform more than 20 actions with the remote control and user can also order the robot to have set actions through programs stored in the remote control or creating programs by themselves," said Gong Yue, the company's representative at the fair.

Gong said the robot is sold for more than 2,000 yuan in market, but will become cheaper after the companu commences mass production.

To promote the robot industry, the institute had signed an agreement with 10 company and higher learning institutions in Shenzhen to establish a robot industry association.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily)