Meet Flippy: The burger-flipping robot
California's CaliBurger chain announced the launch of Flippy- which is an AI-driven kitchen assistant. Flippy's first day at work entailed flipping burgers and placing them on the buns. Besides this, it also tracks the temperature and cooking time of the burgers. Flippy was made by Miso Robotics and Cali Group and makes use of "cameras, sensors and deep learning software to locate ingredients".
Wendy's and McDonald's announce order taking kiosks
In 2016, McDonald's unveiled its order taking kiosks which would not only help in cost cutting but make up for the sales and time loss. In order to keep up with the competition, Wendy's too announced similar order taking kiosks in almost 1000 regions in the US. These are the two notable food giants which have moved to replace humans with technology.
Have you tried Sally's robot salad?
A San Jose firm Casabots unveiled Sally- the salad robot; with a footprint of 28-square-inch and a height of 35 inches. Sally is essentially a programmed refrigerator with digital touchscreen controls. Not only does it toss salads but also provides "calorie and nutritional information that is calculated for programmed salads as well as customized versions". It's also a step towards food safety.
Company making robots for food prep raises $5 million
The popularity of robots in the food space can be gauged from the fact that Chowbotics, (previously known as Casabots) which built robots for food prep, "raised $5 million from Techstars Ventures, Foundry Group, Galvanize Ventures, and the Geekdom Fund."
World's first delivery robot launched
Starship Technologies, a delivery company rolled out its first robot to deliver food in Washington. Starship Technologies announced that this was the "world's first delivery robot". The robots are provided with sensors intended to stop them from colliding into something. Every robot has flashing lights and a red flag. The only noise these robots make is the whirring of the wheels.
Food gets a robotic make-over
Robots in the food space have been taking over with BeeHex start-up coming up with a robot cooking 3D print pizza. Another cafe in San Francisco announced that its robotic baristas would deliver to you a steaming cup of coffee. A bar in Las Vegas also garnered news for announcing the roll out of a robotic bartender to stir up cocktails.
