Footage has emerged that shows catering robots churning out three dozen meals every 15 minutes for front-line medical workers in coronavirus epicentre Wuhan.

The unmanned food stations were developed by Qianxi Robotic Catering, a subsidiary of Chinese real estate giant Country Garden.

They were donated to Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province in central China, where medics on the frontline of fighting the COVID-19 outbreak are struggling to secure regular meals due the city being on lockdown.

Doctors and nurses are reportedly also missing canteen hours due to being on call or in medical emergencies.

Outside Hannan Red Cross Hospital, where isolation wards and temporary treatment centres have been set up, the pink robot catering stations are serving up traditional brown rice clay-pot casserole dishes to order for free.

The company says each vending station can satisfy at least 120 diners an hour.

It is able to make 36 meals every 15 minutes, running 24 hours a day to ensure medics are able to eat whenever they need to.

Qiu Mi, general manager of Qianxi Robotic Catering, said: “This system solves the problem of medical workers getting only irregular meals by offering them food at any time of the day.

Latest coronavirus news“As the catering robots are fully automated and the food production process no human contact, it also lowers the risk of infection.

Qianxi Robotic Catering was founded in May 2019 and has pioneering automated catering in China.

It’s flagship restaurant, called Foodom, is successfully serving customers in Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong Province, despite having zero human staff.