Fast-food robots: french fries and soda will never be the same
Robots are gradually arriving in fast food, and Miso Robotics is looking to speed up their adoption. The company behind the Flippy robot for cooking french fries has entered the beverage market with a robotic dispenser, as part of a new partnership to bring another robot into burger restaurants.
Miso Robotics and Lancer Worldwide (a global manufacturer of beverage dispensers) have released an intelligent automated dispenser.
“Lancer has consistently delivered reliable products to the market for more than 50 years, so there was no doubt about who to work with when it came time to create an automatic beverage dispenser”
Fast food, formally known as the quick-service restaurant industry, is booming due to the coronavirus pandemic, as eateries close or lose popularity among visitors. Labor shortages and rising wages in the job market have prompted restaurant owners to explore new ways to improve efficiency.
This need coincides with the emergence of automation technologies in quick-service food. The pizza segment was previously considered the most popular in the automation industry. In the burger category, Miso has already achieved great success with its Flippy ROAR robot, a bot with advanced artificial intelligence that can perfectly cook several dishes at once.
Miso Robotics and Lancer saw the need to automate beverage preparation in commercial kitchens.
“Order fulfillment is an important factor in meeting customer needs, and operators cannot afford to leave finished drinks sitting when a courier or customer does not come to pick them up. We are very pleased to create a product that will not only improve the lives of those working in commercial kitchens, but also change the rules of the game for the industry as a whole, to deliver world-class customer service”
The new dispenser will automatically pour drinks and prepare them in advance so restaurant staff can pick them up to fulfill orders. It integrates with the point-of-sale system and features a guided workflow for employees to ensure accurate order fulfillment synchronized with the arrival time of the courier or customer.
“Lancer has always stood out as a reliable global manufacturer of beverage dispensers, because we put the needs of our customers and partners at the center of every project we take on. The quick-service brands we work with every day are well aware of their challenges: they know they need greater efficiency, and they know there are new technologies that can make it possible. Miso Robotics will help us get it right for innovative design that makes automation, connectivity and intelligent capabilities a reality for operators. We are glad to work with them to bring this concept to life and deliver it to operators around the world”
Now let's talk about the Flippy robot, Robot-on-a-Rail (ROAR), for cooking roasted foods. It can reduce human contact with food during the cooking process, offering quick-service concepts an innovative quality control system built with sensors and intelligent monitoring that can anticipate kitchen needs for maintaining consistent food temperature.
One major advantage of Flippy ROAR for a 24-hour restaurant is that it can optimize staffing for overnight shifts. Production speed can be controlled to maximize efficiency and reduce wait times, and the robot can cook an average of 360 portions of fried food per day.
“We were very pleased to work closely with White Castle (a hamburger restaurant chain — ed.) to optimize Flippy ROAR to meet their kitchen's needs for increased output, team optimization and quality assurance. Our platform is becoming more powerful and intelligent, allowing us to scale quickly, integrate into operations and demonstrate our ability to maintain customer service standards on par with White Castle's industry reputation as a leader. As we move to the next stage of our partnership, we look forward to accelerating our results”
Flippy automates work around the fryer station, offsetting rising labor costs. The robot improves the quality of finished dishes by cooking products precisely to specifications. It can handle a full menu of fried foods thanks to the Miso Analytics platform and an automatic waste-disposal system. Just one restaurant team member can easily operate the robot without risking burns from hot oil.
The pilot project with Flippy robots began in summer 2020 at White Castle restaurants. The coronavirus pandemic truly shook the restaurant industry and became a catalyst for new automation technologies to improve efficiency and hygiene.
