Robot makes pizza at Aalto University

I visited today Product Development Project Gala at Aalto University in Espoo Finland. I tasted pizza made by robots.

Ready

34 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Here robot makes burgers:

    Taste test: Burger robot startup Creator opens first restaurant
    $6 of algorithmic deliciousness
    https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/21/creator-hamburger-robot/

    Creator’s transparent burger robot doesn’t grind your brisket and chuck steak into a gourmet patty until you order it.

    When I ask how a startup launching one eatery at a time could become a $10 billion company, Creator co-founder and CEO Alex Vardakostas looks me dead in the eye and says, “the market is much bigger than that.”

    Eventually, an app will let people customize the exact ratios of all the ingredients, unlocking near infinite permutations.

    “This is the kind of burger you would get for $12 to $18 [at an upscale restaurant], and it’s $6,”

    the best at that price. A lot of that comes from the savings on labor and kitchen space afforded by a robot cook. “We spend more on our ingredients than any other burger restaurant.”

    http://creator.rest/

    In the meantime, other entrepreneurs have tried to find a business in food robots.

    Bistrobot that haphazardly spurted liquid peanut butter and Nutella on white bread

    Miso Robotics’ burger-flipping arm named Flippy made headlines

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The pizza kitchen with the Pizza Rax logo features two Universal Robotics robots and robotic robots from Robotiq. They are used to fill pizza, to bake and to give to the customer.

    https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2018/05/21/pdp-gala-2018-alya-ja-uusia-tuoteideoita/

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Other somewhat related article:

    I Ate a Robot Hamburger Before the Restaurant Went Out of Business
    https://hackaday.com/2018/10/11/i-ate-a-robot-hamburger-before-the-restaurant-went-out-of-business/#comment-5288071

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Another Pizza robot project is not going too well..

    Natasha Mascarenhas / Crunchbase News:
    Report: pizza-making robot startup Zume, which raised $375M from SoftBank Vision Fund in 2018, plans to lay off up to 400 staff, or about 80% of its employees — In a little over a year, pizza-making robot startup Zume has gone from getting $375 million from SoftBank, to pivoting …

    SoftBank-Funded Zume Reportedly Lays Off 80% Of Staff
    https://news.crunchbase.com/news/softbank-funded-zume-reportedly-lays-off-80-of-staff/

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    XRobotics is keeping the dream of pizza robots alive
    https://tcrn.ch/32TuPNv

    Zume pulled the plug on its robotic pizza wing earlier this year. A lot goes into making a decision like that — particularly for a company whose robotic dreams were a press darling for a while there. But its own inabilities to get the math right shouldn’t necessarily be taken as an indication of a lack of interest in food automation.

    Of course, until another startup fully demonstrates that potential, the Zume story will almost invariably be a preamble for any other company looking to automate the process of pizza making.XRobotics, which launches today, is looking to play a role in helping to change that narrative with a new device designed to replace the traditional pizza make lines.

    https://xrobotics.io/

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Singapore’s first robot cafe with automated egg fried rice and porridge.
    https://fb.watch/2fbEELuWaG/

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    tässä on Suomen ensimmäinen pizza-automaatti!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc1CLV_j0ls

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Short on staff, Ocean City restaurant enlists a robot helper
    https://6abc.com/10657589/?ex_cid=TA_WPVI_FB&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

    the lack of workers is forcing some restaurant owners to get creative, like Andrew Yoa, owner of Island Grill Seafood and Steakhouse in Ocean City.

    Yoa said before the pandemic, the restaurant had a staff of 87 serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. After serving only takeout in 2020, the restaurant is now short 65 employees. It is also closed for breakfast and lunch.

    “I’m feeling very happy that we have the kitchen staff to be able to produce the food, now we just had to come up with an idea: how do we get it out to our customers?” said Yoa.

    He leased a robot named “Peanut” to help employees.

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Meet The Robot Chef That Can Prepare Your Dinner
    https://time.com/3819525/robot-chef-moley-robotics/

    Ever since Americans were introduced to Rosie, the beloved robot maid on The Jetsons, way back in the 1960s, robotic household help has been the ultimate in futuristic dream products.

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Parody:
    Critics Warn $15 Wage Will Force McDonald’s To Replace Burger Patties With Robots
    https://www.theonion.com/critics-warn-15-wage-will-force-mcdonald-s-to-replace-1846967163

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    I just watched McDonald’s new AI drive-thru and I’ve lost my appetite
    https://www.zdnet.com/article/i-just-watched-mcdonalds-new-ai-drive-thru-and-ive-lost-my-appetite/?ftag=COS-05-10aaa0h&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

    You’d think new technology would work hard at making you feel welcome at the drive-thru. Not necessarily. And now, oh, a McDonald’s customer is suing the company for alleged breach of privacy laws. Yes, at the robot drive-thru.

    So when McDonald’s revealed it was testing the idea of replacing humans at the drive-thru with robots, I was filled with cautious optimism.

    Would customers be greeted with a surprisingly chirpy voice, redolent of a young person who really enjoys high school?

    Sadly, I haven’t been near Chicago lately and that’s where the burger chain is testing this as yet imperfect system — McDonald’s confesses the robot only grasps your order 85% of the time.

    McDonald’s is trying something new. It may drive customers mad
    https://www.zdnet.com/article/mcdonalds-is-trying-something-new-it-may-drive-customers-mad/

    Whenever a fast-food chain tries to inject more technology into its offering, there are always issues. In this case, 15% of the time, it seems.

    Reply
  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    3 former SpaceX engineers have launched a robot restaurant that makes a pizza every 45 seconds. Take a look inside.
    https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fspacex-former-engineers-launch-robot-restaurant-stellar-pizza-five-minutes-2021-12&h=AT2_nGuv4-ZvjcKcCX-Ep0LFz-uiQKFkb7EwOyEOWGRtPnzcmnmQlGGZAm0nm1oltNOBlZaGRnrZ3Bmuts53_hIhRwcyzkCJk5ovJWRpx7Wo_DAuKEAo6iDhKu1SjXM1WpuLkxeRTzpGjff6ug

    Stellar Pizza has more than 23 employees who used to work at Elon Musk’s company.

    Stellar Pizza, a robotic restaurant that can churn out a pizza every 45 seconds, is opening in spring next year in Los Angeles.

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    White Castle recently announced plans to install Flippy the robotic “fry cook” at over 100 restaurants this year.

    Flippy the Fast Food Robot Just Got Hired in 100 Restaurants
    https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsingularityhub.com%2F2022%2F02%2F17%2Fflippy-the-fast-food-robot-is-going-to-work-in-100-restaurants%2F&h=AT1rJluw6CbP1A0i_p6-uiC5Z05yKm8T7_T7C3kdR2hBAw1mPvNPaUC-oH2E3Ero0bnyxfkCwmV4zd6LtmnAna1pCTLrij7XMClPa1NiQMaPfQHVVtW5HR38DnPJh4HJGw

    Before the pandemic started (ah, those glorious days…) a collective panic was mounting over automation and robots gradually replacing workers in various fields, or “stealing our jobs,” as the common refrain went. These worries haven’t subsided two years later, but they’re being countered by severe and largely unexpected labor shortages across multiple sectors of the economy. One of the industries that’s struggling most is restaurants. While we may still encounter automation-related unemployment problems down the road, right now it seems robots are lending a much-needed hand in food service.

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    An Impressively Functional Tacobot
    https://hackaday.com/2022/06/22/an-impressively-functional-tacobot/

    We’re big fans of useless machines here at Hackaday, there’s something undeniably entertaining about watching a gadget flail about dramatically without actually making any progress towards a defined goal. But what happens when one of these meme machines ends up working too well? We think that’s just what we might be witnessing here with the Tacobot from [Vije Miller].

    http://vijemiller.com/index.php?t=Tacobot

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    I’m Your Overlord, May I Take Your Order?
    https://hackaday.com/2022/08/18/im-your-overlord-may-i-take-your-order/

    If you’ve ever been at an eatery and thought the server was a bit robotic, you should try San Francisco’s Mezli. The restaurant claims to be the first one to be totally automated. There are no humans in there. The restaurant serves Mediterranean grain bowls. Honestly, it is hard to decide if Mezli is a restaurant or a very sophisticated vending machine.

    Then again, that makes sense. Only in science fiction do you have androids flying spaceships. In real life, the robot probably is the spaceship. Obviously, someone is still loading ingredients into the machine — some precooked — but that’s about it. Some restaurants let you order from a computer while a human makes your food and we’ve seen a few automated chefs, but nothing with this degree of mechanization.

    This Restaurant Is Run Entirely By Robots
    Mezli is basically a big refrigerated box with a bunch of machines inside. No humans required.
    https://sf.eater.com/2022/8/17/23308389/mezli-robot-restaurant-open-menu-san-francisco

    About two years and a few million dollars later, Mezli co-founders Alex Kolchinski, Alex Gruebele, and Max Perham are days away from firing up the touch screens at what they believe to be the world’s first fully robotic restaurant.

    To be clear, Mezli isn’t a restaurant in the traditional sense. As in, you won’t be able to pull up a seat and have a friendly server — human, robot, or otherwise — take your order and deliver your food. Instead, Mezli works more like if a vending machine and a restaurant had a robot baby, Kolchinski describes. It’s a way to get fresh food to a lot of people, really fast (the box can pump out about 75 meals an hour), and, importantly, at a lower price; the cheapest Mezli bowl starts at $6.99.

    On its face, the concept actually sounds pretty simple. The co-founders built what’s essentially a big, refrigerated shipping container and stuffed it with machines capable of portioning out ingredients, putting those ingredients into bowls, heating the food up, and then moving it to a place where diners can get to it. But in a technical sense, the co-founders say it was quite difficult to work out. Most automated restaurants still require humans in some capacity; maybe people take orders while robots make the food or, vice versa, with automated ordering and humans prepping food behind the scenes. But Mezli can run on its own, serving hundreds of meals without any human staff.

    The food does get prepped and pre-cooked off-site by good old-fashioned carbon-based beings.

    Then, once a day, they load all the menu components into the big blue-and-white Mezli box. Inside the box, there’s an oven that either brings the ingredients up to temp or finishes up the last of the cooking. Cutting down on labor marks a key cost-saving measure in the Mezli business model; with just a fraction of the staff, as in less than a half dozen workers, Mezli can serve hundreds of meals.

    Minnich developed the menu of Mediterranean-inspired bowls alongside the technology, which was key to ensuring everything meshed, he explains. Diners can choose from a set list of bowls — options include a lemon za’atar chicken bowl on a bed of turmeric rice, a roasted cauliflower and sweet potato bowl on a bed of red rice, a shredded lamb and tzatziki bowl garnished with roasted mushrooms and tomatoes, or a falafel bowl paired with Israeli salad. There’s also the choice to build your own bowl combining any ingredients into a meal resulting in some 64,800 possible options. Sides include a tahini chocolate chunk cookie, pita chips, and a selection of drinks.

    The fully customizable nature of the Mezli menu also marks a departure from other automated restaurants, the co-founders say. Because of the company’s proprietary machinery and software, they’re able to allow diners to mix and match any ingredients they want — and a full menu change, for example to Thai or Indian food, requires (at least, hypothetically) nothing more than a software update.

    Kolchinski recognizes Mezli might not be the future of dining; there are limitations to a model that’s devoid of human interaction, part of what draws many people to gather over food and drink at traditional restaurants. But he and the co-founders say their technology meets the requirements of being fast, convenient, affordable, and healthy in a way that traditional restaurants simply can’t. Mezli boxes, which run on electricity and don’t require gas hook-ups or a hood or even a water line, can be placed just about anywhere. Plus they can be built far cheaper than traditional restaurant build-outs cost, Kolchinski says, though he declined to share an exact cost for the production of the first box.

    “You have to be careful as an engineer, to not be a hammer looking for a nail,” Kolchinski says. Now it’s up to hungry San Franciscans to judge if the company hit the nail on the head or missed the mark.

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Robot Brutally Chops But Makes Poor Guacamole
    https://hackaday.com/2022/09/02/robot-brutally-chops-but-makes-poor-guacamole/

    Making guacamole by hand normally takes [Estefannie] about 9 minutes. Given her insatiable appetite for the delicious condiment, she spends a lot of time whipping it up in the kitchen at home. Thus, it’s a task ripe for automation, and she set about building a robot to do the job instead.

    The robot starts by chopping ingredients like tomato, onion, and avocado with a knife that swivels to cover the entire chopping board surface. Once chopped, a sweeping blade pushes the ingredients into a bowl to form the guacamole.

    Initial tests were messy, and ingredients were chopped a little inconsistently. Later work involved reprogramming the machine to chop ingredients separately, rather than all at once, which did improve the quality of the guacamole significantly. However, fundamentally, it wasn’t making good guac, so much as it was making a very chunky salad. It simply couldn’t do all the complicated jobs required to make a smooth, delicious dip.

    I built a Mexican robot chef
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5XuHML646k

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Helsinkiläiseen ravintolaan tuli tarjoilijaksi robotti
    https://www.hs.fi/kaupunki/helsinki/art-2000009199596.html

    Helsinkiläisen ravintolan kissamainen Bella Bot kantaa kahdeksan lautasta ja puhuu 20 kieltä. Voiko se ratkaista tarjoilijapulan?

    TULEVAISUUS kaartaa ravintola Hampton Bayn keittiöstä ja sanoo: ”Miauuu!”

    Ääni on nuoren tytön, näyttötaulussa näkyvät kissan silmät ja viikset. Pään päällä on muoviset kissankorvat.

    Pyörillään ravintolasaliin surfannut kissaa esittävä laite on robotti, hieman Tähtien sota -elokuvien R2D2:ta muistuttava mutta laihempi.

    Robotti on etunimeltään Bella, sukunimeltään Bot. Neiti Bot on todennäköisesti Suomen ensimmäinen robottitarjoilija.

    Bella Bot pysähtyy pöydän viereen ja kailottaa englanniksi: ”Rakas asiakas, ateriasi on valmis!”

    Laitteessa on neljä hyllyä, jolle annokset on aseteltu asiakkaan otettaviksi. Bella näyttää sinisellä valolla, miltä hyllyltä oma ruoka löytyy.

    PALJON on puhuttu ravintoloiden työvoimapulasta. Onko Bella Bot ratkaisu Hampton Bayssä työvoiman saatavuuteen?

    ”Ei, tarkoitus on saada asiakkaat hyvälle tuulelle ja pitää vähän hauskaa. Ja on kiva tehdä tämä ensimmäisenä Suomessa”, sanoo ravintoloitsija Tarja Palomäki.

    ”Bella on meidän maskottimme”

    BELLA tuli Suomeen runsas viikko sitten, ja viime torstaina teknikko tuli Espanjasta ohjelmoimaan robotin.

    Bella puhuu pariakymmentä kieltä. Suomea hän ei vielä osaa, mutta asia hoituu lataamalla laitteeseen oikeat äänitiedostot.

    ”Bella on hauska, koska sillä on tunteet. Bella muistuttaa vähän tamagochi-lelua”, Railonkoski sanoo.

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Pizza-Pizza CNC Machine Makes Pizzas So You Don’t Have To
    Teddy Warner, a high school senior from North Carolina, built this Pizza-Pizza CNC Machine.
    https://www.hackster.io/news/pizza-pizza-cnc-machine-makes-pizzas-so-you-don-t-have-to-2abc96e2c411

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    ‘Finally, my order will be quick and accurate’: McDonald’s fully-automated location with no human employees sparks debate
    ‘No more attitude at the counter.’
    https://www.dailydot.com/irl/mcdonalds-fully-automated/?fb=dd

    A test location for a fully-automated McDonald’s location in Fort Worth, Texas has drawn a variety of reactions from viewers after being shared to TikTok by a food blog

    Posted by user @foodiemunster, the video shows a new McDonald’s location that uses automated food ordering and a cashless payment system, with employees in the kitchen cooking the orders.

    Reply
  20. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Robot barista at Punggol Hawker Centre malfunctions, pours coffee dramatically onto ground
    One diner quipped that the robot had been frightened by its audience.
    https://mothership.sg/2023/05/robot-barista-punggol-malfunctions/

    Reply
  21. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Is this one job the robots can’t take?

    ROBOT PIZZA STARTUP SHUTS DOWN AFTER CHEESE KEPT SLIDING OFF
    https://futurism.com/the-byte/robot-pizza-startup-shuts-down

    A robot pizza delivery startup that raised almost half a billion dollars has shut down after a series of technological setbacks, according to The Information

    SoftBank’s Onetime Pizza-Robot Darling Shuts Down
    By Erin Woo | June 2, 2023 4:37 PM PDT
    Zume, which raised $375 million from SoftBank to automate pizza-making with robots before switching to developing sustainable packaging, has shut down.
    https://www.theinformation.com/articles/softbanks-onetime-pizza-robot-darling-shuts-down?irgwc=1&utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=cpa&utm_campaign=10078-Skimbit+Ltd.&utm_term=businessinsider.com&irclickid=WSWQzc0X9xyPUkY33cws3R6HUkF0kBRxlwcqQ40&irgwc=1&utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=cpa&utm_campaign=10078-Skimbit+Ltd.&utm_term=futurism.com

    The company is insolvent

    Reply

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