Maya Sakai, who has spinal muscular atrophy and feared becoming isolated at home, expects that use of robot avatars will create jobs for severely disabled people like herself after operating a “robot waitress” in January.

The 23-year-old has had the intractable disease since birth, which causes muscles to weaken and shrink, and made finding a job an ordeal.

From her home in Hyogo Prefecture she operated a robot that acted as her avatar to serve customers at a cafe in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward from Jan. 16 to 24.

Operators of the OriHime-D humanoid robots, who are called “pilots,” controlled them remotely through computers using their hand and eye movements.

On Jan. 21, watching a video feed from the cafe sent to her screen from a camera on the robot, Sakai tapped the keyboard with her left thumb to move the robot and deliver drinks to tables.

Pilots can also speak with customers via speakers built into the white 1.2-meter-tall robots.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Sakai said to a customer through the robot. “You ordered iced coffee, right? Could you take this yourself, please?”

She worked a one-hour shift twice a day and made 1,100 yen ($9.82) an hour.

“Customers said thank you to me,” Sakai said. “That felt new because normally I need to say thank you to people around me.”

Sakai, who said she had “done nothing” since graduating from university last spring, fired off an application for a pilot after hearing about it on the Twitter account of Ory Yoshifuji, the head of the company that makes the robots.

Yoshifuji, the CEO of Tokyo-based humanoid maker Ory Lab Inc., developed the robots called OriHime-D to promote the social involvement of intractable disease patients and people with disabilities who can't venture outdoors on their own.

The robot cafe experiment was first held in autumn 2018. The cafe was only open for four hours a day for a 10-day period, but 1,000 customers visited, according to Ory Lab.

Customers were overwhelmingly positive about the project and said that they felt as if the pilots were physically in front of them.

Ory Lab is looking to open the robot cafe permanently.

Pilots actively share information on their experience on their social media accounts, and see themselves as role models for “working people with serious disorders and disabilities,” Ory Lab said.

Sakai, who lives in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, had high praise for the project.

“It gives people who have difficulty going out by themselves more work options to choose from,” Sakai said.

Before she joined the project with Ory Lab, Sakai struggled to find employment. Potential employers were unwilling to accommodate her need to have a caregiver with her at work.

Sakai, who lives with her parents and younger brother, uses a motorized wheelchair to get around and requires the assistance of her family members or caregivers to have meals and use a restroom.

After studying at local elementary, junior and senior high schools, she enrolled in Mukogawa Women's University in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture.

Her grandfather drove Sakai to the college and a helper commissioned by the university provided assistance on the campus.

Two years ago, Sakai took employment exams for jobs at broadcasting stations and other companies as she loves comedy and other TV shows. But no offers materialized.

Because of that, Sakai participated in a service that introduced jobs to people with disabilities.

But things did not go well.

When Sakai explained that she must be accompanied by a helper during work, a company representative expressed concerns about “allowing a third person into the office because data involving the business is visible to the person.”

On a separate occasion, Sakai was put off by an interviewer's suggestion she “should work from home.”

“Working at home means being isolated alone,” Sakai said. “I didn't want to be shut off from society.”

After passing the online interview with Ory Lab, Sakai learned how to treat customers and how to move a robot.

She piloted a robot at its experiments held in October and December last year as well.

During her three stints as an operator, Sakai worked with about 30 other pilots who reside across Japan.

All are unable to go out easily by themselves because of physical disabilities caused by disorders and injuries, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and spinal cord damage.

Saki has made sacrifices to take part in the project.

Sakai was able to have a caregiver look after her under the publicly subsidized home-visit care system for those with serious conditions, but they cannot use the caregivers in their jobs.

So Sakai asked her helper to be absent while she works as a waitress via the robot.

But the benefits are worth it as it gives her the feeling of transcending her muscular atrophy, she said.

“I never dreamed I'd be able to carry something at work, so I'm surprised at being able to do this kind of job,” Sakai said.

The robot program is great, she said, because, “anyone who can't go out for various reasons will be able to work irrespective of whether they have disabilities. Their dreams will be expanded (with the commercialization of the service).”