The Future of Food: Rise of Restaurant Robots

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Benefits of Restaurant Automation
3. Miso Robotics: The Inventors of Flippy
4. Kitchen Robotics: Bistro for Ghost Kitchens
5. Hyper Robotics: Fully Automated Pizza Restaurant
6. Sally: The Salad Making Robot
7. The Mini Bakery: Automated Bread Making
8. Mana: Drone Delivery Startup
9. Bear Robotics: Food Service Robot
10. Conclusion

The Restaurant Automation Revolution Has Begun

According to verified market research, the robot kitchen market was valued at 1.7 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach 4.4 billion by 2028. From cocktail making to burger flipping, many food and beverage businesses are beginning to discover the benefits of using robots to improve their productivity.

If You've ever worked in hospitality, you know just how tough it can be - long hours, low pay, and tight margins for the owner. As technology advances and AI becomes more accessible, food establishments can benefit greatly from automating the food and beverage making process, allowing them to save money, reduce staff, enrich their menus, make fewer mistakes, reduce food waste, and work 24/7.

In this article, we'll explore seven robotic companies that are trying to revolutionize the way we eat and drink. From fully automated pizza restaurants to salad-making robots, we'll take a closer look at the benefits of restaurant automation and how it can help businesses thrive in today's competitive market.

The Benefits of Restaurant Automation

Before we dive into the specific companies and their products, let's take a moment to explore the benefits of restaurant automation. Here are just a few of the advantages that businesses can enjoy by incorporating robots into their operations:

• Increased productivity: Robots can work around the clock, allowing businesses to produce more food and beverages in less time.
• Reduced labor costs: With fewer staff needed to handle food preparation and service, businesses can save money on wages and benefits.
• Improved accuracy: Robots can be programmed to make food and drinks exactly to order, reducing the risk of mistakes and customer complaints.
• Enhanced menu offerings: With the help of robots, businesses can expand their menus to include more complex dishes and drinks that would be difficult or time-consuming for human staff to prepare.
• Reduced food waste: By precisely measuring ingredients and cooking food to order, robots can help businesses reduce the amount of food that goes to waste.
• Improved customer experience: With faster service and more accurate orders, customers are likely to be more satisfied with their dining experience.

Now that we've explored the benefits of restaurant automation, let's take a closer look at some of the companies that are leading the way in this exciting field.

Miso Robotics: The Inventors of Flippy

Miso Robotics is one of the most famous names in the kitchen robotics industry, thanks to their invention of Flippy - a robot that can cook burgers, manage the fry station, and free up kitchen staff to handle other tasks. Flippy 2.0, their newest version, harnesses deep learning to identify objects on the grill, allowing the robot to pick them up with high reliability. It also has 3D depth sensing and thermal cameras to know when the food is cooked fully.

Among their customers are Kali Burger, White Castle, and Buffalo Wild Wings. If you want to add a Flippy to your restaurant, it'll cost around three thousand dollars a month, which actually isn't too bad. If we assume that the average employee gets $15 an hour and works 40 hours a week, that works out to around $2,400 a month. Flippy, on the other HAND, can work weekends, doesn't take sick days, doesn't need lunch breaks, and brings all the added efficiencies that only robots can.

Kitchen Robotics: Bistro for Ghost Kitchens

Kitchen Robotics is a Tel Aviv-Based startup that was founded in 2018 and has developed Bistro - a robot specifically built for ghost kitchens. A ghost kitchen, also referred to as a cloud, dark, or virtual kitchen, is a kitchen space devoted exclusively to delivery orders. Bistro, a fully programmable kitchen robot, aims to make restaurant operations cheaper and easier while also cutting down on wait time by introducing automation technology into the process.

The automated robot chef can make up to 60 dishes per hour, with the average dish time being between two and four minutes depending on the complexity of the dish. When it's ready, it rolls down ready for delivery. It only takes one staff member to run an entire Bistro machine, and the best part is that the machine even handles the clean-up process, freeing up time for kitchen staff.

Hyper Robotics: Fully Automated Pizza Restaurant

Another Israeli company in the kitchen robotics space is Hyper Robotics. Hyper Robotics has created a fully automated pizza restaurant - the first concept comes in a container complete with all the robots needed to produce up to 50 pies per hour. Each container comes with tons of technology packed into one box - it includes three convection ovens, a conveyor belt system that moves the pizza into the ovens, an automatic slicer, and a boxing system that puts the freshly made pizzas into a box ready to hand off to a customer in just a few minutes.

It has to be said that Hyper Robotics aren't the only business looking to automate the Italian classic, with Picnic, Pistro, Basil Street, and Pazzi all working hard to bring a pizza robot to your neighborhood.

Sally: The Salad Making Robot

Sally, Bite Robotics' salad-making robot, was recently acquired by delivery startup DoorDash. Sally is a salad-making robot, mixing up to 22 ingredients from vegetables to salmon and delivering it into a compostable bowl in just 90 seconds. Along with providing a fun and quick experience for customers, Sally also helps fast food restaurants expand their menu and add salads and healthier options without hiring additional staff or adding new machines to the kitchen.

Sally comes in a 3x3 foot space and can operate 24/7. From the 22 ingredients, the robot can offer thousands of custom meals and snack options. Users can fine-tune the calorie total of their meal by adding or subtracting ingredients, as well as view a full nutritional Detail of their selection, making it easier to stick to their specific dietary goals.

According to online sources, a Sally robot will set you back $35,000. So, if you sold your salads for $10 and had a gross margin of 50%, or made five dollars profit per bowl, you would need to sell 7,000 salads to earn $35,000 gross margin. It may sound like a lot, but if you sold a conservative 50 salads a day, it would only take you 140 days to recoup your investment.

The Mini Bakery: Automated Bread Making

The Mini Bakery is built and designed by Wilkinson Baking Company and is a fully automated system for baking bread. It does all the mixing, shaping, proofing, and baking, allowing bread to be sold hot and fresh directly to the customer, just like a vending machine. The Mini Bakery can make up to 10 loaves per hour, saving on ingredients and transportation costs.

It was specifically made for supermarkets to sell fresh loaves to customers, but it's very easy to see the value it could bring to restaurants and hotels.

Mana: Drone Delivery Startup

Mana is an Irish drone delivery startup delivering food orders and other items by drone. They've already completed 65,000 deliveries across Galway and Dublin. Customers summon Mana using an Uber-style mobile phone app, directing them to an open space such as a drive or a garden. The drone travels at speeds up to 50 miles an hour, with on-board detectors checking for obstacles. When the drone arrives at the destination, the customer is invited to tap accept on their phone, prompting the drone to lower the Package to the ground.

The company's drones at present are limited to packages of 3kg and limited to a range of 10 kilometers. Although the technology isn't proven all the time, the good news is that it's raised 25 million dollars to expand its drone operation and has plans to expand into the US.

Bear Robotics: Food Service Robot

At a Tokyo event in September 2020, Bear Robotics introduced their new food service robot, Servi. Servi runs food right to the table and allows servers to focus on creating excellent experiences. Servi is the simplest way to make busing tables a breeze and is 100% self-driving, navigating space intelligently, safely, and with ease using advanced sensors and multiple built-in cameras.

According to Bear Robotics' Website, Servi robots have already delivered over 20 million tables worldwide.

Conclusion

The rise of automation and robots in the food and beverage industry may seem daunting. However, robots can be used to assist with difficult, laborious tasks and free up people to do more rewarding work. Mass adoption may seem like quite a bit away, but if labor shortages Continue and tech improves, it may be quicker than you predict.

Initially, robots can be used to attract customers due to their novelty factor, and in the case of Sally, Create additional revenue streams. Innovation in restaurant robots will be beneficial for both business owners and customers, improving efficiencies, and when deployed correctly, the experience for customers.

In conclusion, the future of the food and beverage industry is looking bright with the help of robots. Leave us a comment and let us know what food trend you'd like us to cover next. If you enjoyed this article, give it a like, and stay tuned for more exciting content.

Highlights

• The robot kitchen market was valued at 1.7 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach 4.4 billion by 2028.
• Robots can increase productivity, reduce labor costs, improve accuracy, enhance menu offerings, reduce food waste, and improve the customer experience.
• Miso Robotics' Flippy can cook burgers, manage the fry station, and free up kitchen staff to handle other tasks.
• Kitchen Robotics' Bistro is a fully programmable kitchen robot that can make up to 60 dishes per hour.
• Hyper Robotics has created a fully automated pizza restaurant that can produce up to 50 pies per hour.
• Sally, Bite Robotics' salad-making robot, can mix up to 22 ingredients and deliver it into a compostable bowl in just 90 seconds.
• The Mini Bakery is a fully automated system for baking bread, allowing bread to be sold hot and fresh directly to the customer.
• Mana is an Irish drone delivery startup delivering food orders and other items by drone.
• Bear Robotics' Servi runs food right to the table and allows servers to focus on creating excellent experiences.

FAQ

Q: How can robots benefit the food and beverage industry? A: Robots can increase productivity, reduce labor costs, improve accuracy, enhance menu offerings, reduce food waste, and improve the customer experience.

Q: How much does a Flippy robot cost? A: A Flippy robot costs around three thousand dollars a month.

Q: How many dishes can Bistro make per hour? A: Bistro can make up to 60 dishes per hour.

Q: How much does a Sally robot cost? A: A Sally robot costs $35,000.

Q: How many deliveries has Mana completed? A: Mana has completed 65,000 deliveries across Galway and Dublin.