Robotic burger flipper for commercial kitchens

No longer pie in the sky, robotic kitchen assistants are now a reality.

Miso Robotics and Cali Group have released Flippy, an artificial intelligence-driven robot that will work alongside kitchen staff at CaliBurger restaurants. The robotic kitchen assistant will be used to flip burgers and place them onto buns.

Debuting at CaliBurger in Pasadena, the robot will roll out through 2018 and is expected to be in more than 50 CaliBurger restaurants worldwide by the end of 2019.

Miso Robotics is pioneering the use of computer vision and deep learning software to bring low-cost, adaptable robotics into restaurants. The company’s collaborative kitchen assistant handles the hazardous, tedious and time-sensitive aspects of grilling and cooks burgers to perfection every time. It easily integrates into CaliBurger’s current kitchen layout without needing to reconfigure existing equipment.

While artificial intelligence is being successfully tested and employed to drive cars, manage the home and message with customers, Miso Robotics is the first company to bring robotics and AI into the kitchen in a meaningful way.

“Much like self-driving vehicles, our system continuously learns from its experiences to improve over time,” said David Zito, CEO of Miso Robotics. “Though we are starting with the relatively ‘simple’ task of cooking burgers, our proprietary AI software allows our kitchen assistants to be adaptable and therefore can be trained to help with almost any dull, dirty or dangerous task in a commercial kitchen — whether it’s frying chicken, cutting vegetables or final plating.”

“The application of artificial intelligence to robotic systems that work next to our employees in CaliBurger restaurants will allow us to make food faster, safer and with fewer errors,” said John Miller, chairman of Cali Group. “Our investment in Miso Robotics is part of our broader vision for creating a unified operating system that will control all aspects of a restaurant from in-store interactive gaming entertainment to automated ordering and cooking processes, ‘intelligent’ food delivery and real-time detection of operating errors and pathogens.”

The integration of Miso Robotics into CaliBurger’s kitchens will allow the chain to redeploy some of its staff to the dining room to engage more with customers. CaliBurger will also collaborate with Miso Robotics to retrain certain staff to operate Flippy.

Image credit: Miso Robotics.