Ayaka Hoshiba has had spinal muscular atrophy since she was 2 years old. She lives in Okayama Prefecture and could never stand behind a bar taking orders. And yet, she does it every day, remotely operating a robot named “Moon”, sometimes moving only her eyes, and chatting with customers like any waitress in the world.
The café is called DAWN, it is located in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district, and it opened in June 2021 as an experimental project by inventor Kentaro Yoshifuji, who spent years isolated because of his own health before creating this idea. Around 70 “pilots” work there—people with ALS, spinal cord injuries, or conditions that keep them bedridden—operating 1.20-meter OriHime robots with a camera, microphone, and 14 motors, earning the same salary as any waiter.
No one at DAWN gets out of bed to go to work. But each of them hears, at the end of their shift, a “thank you” that feels completely real.
