Posted on 04/15/2021 5:16:07 AM PDT by Red Badger
No doubt about it, the pandemic has changed the way we eat. Never before have so many people who hated cooking been forced to learn how to prepare a basic meal for themselves. With sit-down restaurants limiting their capacity or shutting down altogether, consumption of fast food and fast-casual food has skyrocketed. Don’t feel like slaving over a hot stove? Just hit the drive through and grab a sandwich and some fries (the health implications of increased fast food consumption are another matter…).
Given our sudden immense need for paper-wrapped burgers and cardboard cartons of fries, fast food workers are now counted as essential. But what about their safety, both from a virus standpoint and from the usual risks of working in a busy kitchen (like getting burned by the stove or the hot oil from the fryer, cut by a slicer, etc.)? And how many orders of burgers and fries can humans possibly churn out in an hour?
Enter the robot. Three and a half years ago, a burger-flipping robot aptly named Flippy, made by Miso Robotics, made its debut at a fast food restaurant in California called CaliBurger. Now Flippy is on the market for anyone who wishes to purchase their own, with a price tag of $30,000 and a range of new capabilities—this burger bot has progressed far beyond just flipping burgers.
Flippy’s first iteration was already pretty impressive. It used machine learning software to locate and identify objects in front of it (rather than needing to have objects lined up in specific spots), and was able to learn from experience to improve its accuracy. Sensors on its grill-facing side took in thermal and 3D data to gauge the cooking process for multiple patties at a time, and cameras allowed the robot to ‘see’ its surroundings.
A system that digitally sent tickets to the kitchen from the restaurant’s front counter kept Flippy on top of how many burgers it should be cooking at any given time. Its key tasks were pulling raw patties from a stack and placing them on the grill, tracking each burger’s cook time and temperature, and transferring cooked burgers to a plate.
The new and improved Flippy can do all this and more. It can cook 19 different foods, including chicken wings, onion rings, french fries, and even the Impossible Burger (which, as you may know, isn’t actually made of meat, and that means it’s a little trickier to grill it to perfection).
Flippy fast food robot items cooked White Castle
Flippy’s handiwork. Image Credit: Miso Robotics
And instead of its body sitting on a cart on wheels (which took up a lot of space and meant the robot’s arm could get in the way of human employees), it’s now attached to a rail along the stove’s hood, and can move along the rail to access both the grill and the fryer (provided they’re next to each other, which in many fast food restaurants they are). In fact, Flippy has a new acronym attached to its name: ROAR, which stands for Robot on a Rail.
Flippy ROAR in action, artist rendering. Image Credit: Miso Robotics
Sensors equipped with laser make it safer for human employees to work near Flippy. The bot can automatically switch between different tools, such as a spatula for flipping patties and tongs for gripping the handle of a fryer basket. Its AI software will enable it to learn new skills over time.
Flippy fast food robot AI interface Flippy’s interface. Image Credit: Miso Robotics
The first big restaurant chain to go all-in on Flippy was White Castle, which in July announced plans to pilot Flippy ROAR before year’s end. And just last month, Miso made the bot commercially available. The current cost is $30,000 (plus a monthly fee of $1,500 for use of the software), but the company hopes to bring the price down to $20,000 within the next year.
According to Business Insider, demand for the fast food robot is through the roof, probably given a significant boost by the pandemic—thanks, Covid-19. The pace of automation has picked up across multiple sectors, and will likely continue to accelerate as companies look to insure themselves against additional losses.
So for the immediate future, it seems that no matter what happens, we don’t have to worry about the supply of burgers, fries, onion rings, chicken wings, and the like running out.
Now if only Flippy had a cousin—perhaps named Leafy—who could chop vegetables and greens and put together fresh-made salads…
Maybe that can be Miso Robotics’ next project.
Image Credit: Miso Robotics
This technology was developed with the current spot price of manual labor having nothing to do with driving it.
The FF restaurant of the future will have just two employees: A Man and a Dog.
The Dog will be there to make sure the man doesn’t touch the machine. The man will be there to feed the dog.................
Dear old freepers IT’S NOT 1972 ....
“This technology was developed with the current spot price of manual labor having nothing to do with driving it.”
Then why on earth would they bother? It’s always about the money.
Because a robot is better than training and paying a human at any price. Even better than a slave.
This scene is what makes him getting beat to death later in the film so enjoyable.
“Finding employees is becoming harder and harder, regardless what you pay.”
Went to Lowes yesterday and they were having an employment fair at the front entrance. The lady asked me if I wanted to sign up and I told her I’m 70. She said no problem.
The demand for automation in fast food is not from Covid 19, it’s from the 15 dollar an hour minimum wage the Democrats are pushing.
Total stupidity on display.
It goes up there with this stupid phrase from the Bush era:
There are jobs Americans won't do
What crap...
Finding employees is becoming harder and harder, regardless what you pay
Total stupidity on display.
It goes up there with this stupid phrase from the Bush era:
There are jobs Americans won’t do
What crap...
———
When full-time at burger joints and other retail jobs means 40 hours a week, only then is the hourly wage meaningful for comparison. Since ObamaCare regulations, 29.5 hours a week became all too common. And unless you are a senior employee/Union, your schedule will bounce around more than the pair Dolly Parton has.... so say the pay is $12 an hour and an employee only give 20 hours a week, that’s less than $1000 after taxes a month...
My husband works in supply chain logistics, and robots are quickly being utilized in warehouses. They can carry a lot of weight and can move from place to place without wearing out hips or knees. Fewer lawsuits from difficult working conditions as a result. This is the new normal. Get used to it. It’s all over the place.
The robot will have no qualms about using humans as its meat source . . . and they won’t even have to tell it that it is only soylent green.
Same old crap from the "Just pay more." bot.
Jobs Americans won’t do is a phrase parroted by Republicans Americans won’t vote for.
George Foreman makes most of my burgers for me, and he does a damn fine job.
Jobs Americans won’t do is a phrase parroted by Republicans Americans won’t vote for.
———
Jobs Americans won’t do, according to globalist Republicans, Democrats and libertarians:
skilled white-collar work in the STEM fields: Indians will work for a third
skilled blue-collar work: Mexicans will work for minimum/sub-minimum wage.
What’s left for Americans?
The services industry and small business. The very industry devastated by the coronavirus lockdowns.
And low-paying starter jobs in manufacturing, retail, warehouses and fast-food. That’s probably due to companies not being able to bring in cheap foreign labor fast enough (Central Americans, Africans, Muslims etc)
Hell, we had one liberal here basically saying we should all accept wages at 3rd world levels. Slate said so, so it must be true.
#5 I noticed that when hours were lowered to 29 hours a week because of obamacare, the local grocery stores employees changed to those that didn’t care about their appearance much. Same for when bookstores were around and were going out of business. They hired anyone. Places like Amazon have automatic checkout and many grocery stores have you do the checkout and now you can get a burger by robot.
Now add in illegals and where are these former employees get a job?
#9 Add in McCormick Culinary Onion Powder to the hamburger.
Better then chopped up onions. I usually mix in then freeze the hamburger patties for later. You can also sprinkle it on the plain frozen burgers as well.
https://tinyurl.com/r5z6w4bb
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