How long will it take for the robot to take over the kitchen? | New wisdom

Xin Zhi Zao: The author of this article Matthew Sedacca, source Eater, compiled by the new wisdom exclusive compilation, refused to reprint without permission!

In the kitchen of a restaurant, humanoid robots are preparing customers' Mexican chicken rolls and tacos: mixing dough, spreading cakes, whisking eggs, adding ingredients, making burritos, placing them on tin foil, setting plates, and serving customers' dining tables. Everything is quite orderly and organized. In the living room, customers wait patiently at the dinner table.

This sounds like a plot in a science fiction movie, but in fact, it will really come true in the not-too-distant future. In July of this year, the BratWurst robot developed by the Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI) Information Technology Research Center has successfully become a chef. It can read menus, cook and prepare more than 200 dishes for the entire party. Arne Roennau, head of the FZI robot department, said:

People do not realize that our technology has developed to this point.

In the past few decades, many companies have predicted that restaurants will “employ” robot attendants, and many R&D teams have created superb robots. The Google-developed Momentum Machines robot has powerful cooking capabilities. It can make 400 hamburgers per hour; MIT students have created a robot called Spyce Kitchen that can make complicated dishes. It is worth mentioning that the two robots need no human intervention. In addition, the Robotic Kitchen developed by Moley Robotics uses two smart robotic arms to replicate the cooking process of the human chef and automatically cook the same dishes; the pizza delivery company Zume Pizza allows the human attendant to work with the robots Marta and Bruno. Marta can put the sauce on the pizza in less than two seconds, and Bruno can put the pizza to the oven. Lei Feng Network (search "Lei Feng Net" public concern) has also previously reported that Kawasaki Heavy Industries developed duAro can make delicious pizza and sushi.

Therefore, it goes without saying that more and more restaurants have begun investing in robots, allowing robots to enter the kitchen and assisting or even replacing the work of chefs. Many people say that robot chefs are the general trend. But now, we are faced with a question: How long will it take for the robot to take over the kitchen?

Siddhartha Srinivasa, professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, said:

Robots entering the kitchen are not an easy task. Different restaurants face different problems. For fast-food restaurants (such as McDonald's), robots need to be integrated into the “industrial style of programming”. It needs to make a lot of different dishes at once and work according to the process.

Spyce Kitchen is an example of “industrial programming” cooking: it receives orders from customers, puts the ingredients into containers, mixes the ingredients, puts them in the kitchen, sets the time, and the finished product is ready. The Momentum Machines' burger robot can perform tasks such as cutting vegetables, cooking, and serving food. A burger can be made every 10 seconds.

BratWurst is more advanced than the former two. It can execute a variety of orders, receive orders, place sausages on a baking tray, turn the sausages over and over to the customer when necessary, and then start putting the sausages on a baking tray. Rozenu of FZI said:

Our robotic system relies on two RGB cameras and a whole set of algorithms. This allows the robot to monitor the sausages in the oven and on the plate and observe their color changes to determine if they need to turn over. Our BratWurst always knows what to do next.

However, robots may encounter another problem when they enter the kitchen: Fruits and vegetables are mostly irregular in shape. Therefore, the action needed to cut a lettuce and the roots of a watermelon is totally different. There are many difficulties for robots that make salads. Therefore, the vast majority of robots are not flexible enough to be able to identify various foods and various production methods, which is why the robot revolution still sounds far away.

In addition, robots also face price issues in the kitchen. In 2015, Moley Robotics' Robotic Kitchen robots were priced at close to $7,500, but their manufacturers said they hope to reduce prices to $15,000 in 2017.

Wadhwa thinks this problem is easy to solve:

Tech items always devalue over time, just as Tesla Motors and Apple products do. The price of the robot is now between 20,000 and 40,000 U.S. dollars. Therefore, we predict that after a decade, they will fall to between $2,000 and $3,000.

Nowadays, many catering companies have begun investing in robots and encouraging robots to enter the kitchen. CKE restaurant CEO Andy Puzder has already expressed that he will invest in robotic automation restaurants in the future. Ed Rensi, former CEO of McDonald's in the United States, said that the robot arm is already available for French fries and the cost of the robot arm ($35,000) is shared with that of McDonald's employees. The minimum annual salary is quite equal or even lower. In addition, chain restaurants such as Starbucks, Taco Bell, and McDonald's have launched self-service meal orders, which more or less show their interest in robots entering the kitchen.

Seeing here, many catering professionals are certainly worried that they will be run away by robots, but they do not know that their work is generally not replaced by robots. More often than not, robots only help. Henrik Scharfe, head of the Institute for Robotics at Aalborg University in Denmark, said that they are working on ways to make robots and human chefs work together, rather than having robots simply replace human chefs. High-end restaurants and home kitchens are more likely to use ergonomic cooking modes than fast food restaurants. If you do, you will see this scenario: The robot handed over the food ingredients that the chef wanted, and when the chef was cutting the fish, the robot was cutting carrots, and they were very cooperative.

When the robot enters the kitchen for the first time, you will be amazed that the delicious food you enjoy will actually come from these "non-human" hands, but after 20 years, you may become accustomed to it.

Srinivasa at Carnegie Mellon University stated:

Our goal is to make the robot no longer so far away. We like these robotic brothers who invade the kitchen. One day, we will treat them as ordinary colleagues and work with them to create delicious food.

Via:Eater

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