Creator, a company based in San Francisco, has developed a culinary robot that can autonomously make a complete ‘artisan’ burger in less than five minutes. Orders are taken using an application on an iPhone, allowing you to design your burger down to the smallest detail.
Currently, each burger bot will be able to make up to 120 burgers per hour, possibly below the number of burgers needed by fast food restaurants during peak service hours. However, there is another robot in town which could provide the solution. Flippy the robot is a robotic arm that, as you can guess, flips burgers.
Burgers are not the only food item that is being made by robots, at Zoom, a pizza company, Martha the robot and a number of employees work together on an assembly-type line to create the perfect ‘artisan’ pizza.
With these new developments, the ‘machines taking over our jobs’-narrative has been raised as a concern. However, I believe this machine is actually a good argument for human-machine synergy. Although the machine performs tasks that are typically done by employees, these are seen as repetitive and unhealthy. Instead of standing over a hot stove, flipping burgers and inhaling the smoke, the employees will engage with customers, refill ingredients and make the strategic decisions around the restaurant.
This all leads to a larger question, while automatization and digitalisation has pervaded many areas of our lives, in the kitchen, this has primarily been limited to the introduction of new machines for humans to operate. Will these development lead to a widespread change in commercial kitchens? Or will these robots remain a novelty, to be found in one or two restaurants worldwide?
Sources:
https://sf.eater.com/2018/6/21/17489084/creator-robot-burgers-san-francisco
http://video.wired.com/watch/order-up-the-burger-bot-is-almost-ready-for-business
