Food and drink manufacturing robot app goes live

Trying to encourage young people to take an interest in mechanical engineering? There’s an app for that.

Taste Success has launched the free MunchBot app at the Big Bang Fair, a British science and engineering event. The app had an incredible 3500 plays at the event, with players voting it four or five out of five.

The objective of the game is to get the robot to pick up as many food items as possible from a moving conveyor belt within 30 seconds. Points are accumulated for every food item grabbed. But to make things difficult, trick items are included that reduce points.

The MunchBot app will be used as part of Taste Success - the UK food and drink manufacturing industry’s careers campaign - to encourage young people to consider a career as an engineer in the industry.

“We are delighted that the MunchBot app has gone live and is now available for everyone to enjoy,” said Hanne Christensen, Food & Drink Federation Digital manager and spokesperson for the Taste Success campaign.

“We knew that we had to be creative and come up with an interactive activity to engage with young people so that they might stop and think about a career in this exciting industry. Right now there are a huge number of opportunities to begin a career in food and drink, especially for those considering a career in engineering. We hope that MunchBot will lead young people to find out more and maybe even apply for industry’s new MEng Food Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University.”

The MunchBot app is available to download from the iTunes app store.