'Unstoppable' dancing robot causes chaos at California restaurant

Staff at Cupertino restaurant struggle to constrain dancing robot

Staff at a restaurant in Cupertino had to step in and restrain a robot after it knocked items from a table while dancing. The video is courtesy of @Meooow via Storyful.

Customers at a Cupertino hot pot restaurant got quite a show when a robot began an unstoppable dance routine in the middle of the dining room.

The robot, wearing a bib that ironically read "I’m good," was captured on video by @Meooow at HaiDiLao Hotpot. The video shows the machine waving its mechanical arms from side to side and kicking its legs as diners looked on.

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Robot gone wild

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While the two-minute video shows customers laughing and recording the performance on their phones, the atmosphere shifted slightly when the robot moved too close to diners. The machine began slapping its hands against a table, sending chopsticks and sauce flying.

Despite the disruption, the robot refused to grooving.

The struggle to subdue

One restaurant employee is seen in the video attempting to pull the machine away but struggling. It eventually took two more staff members to restrain the robot. Even as they held it, the machine continued to march in place.

"Three people couldn’t hold it back!" @Meooow said in the video caption. She later clarified that the robot didn't deliberately strike the table. "The little guy was too close to the table; it didn’t look like he was intentionally slapping the table," she said.

Restoring order

Staff members eventually deactivated the machine. The robot finally froze in place, mid-dance move.

It remains unclear whether the out-of-control dancing was caused by a software glitch.