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The Dawn of the Robotic Chef (robohub.org)

Posted by samzenpus on from the fastest-food dept.

pRobotika writes: When Moley announced its robotic kitchen back in April, the media jumped on the story as a promising glimpse into the future. But how realistic are robot chefs? Robotics' professionals are understandably skeptical but, if Moley manages to overcome one major issue, their approach could have real potential. Why? Because their kitchen is basically a flexible robotic workcell, and in manufacturing that's nothing new.

50 comments

  1. Industrialized food by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We have "robotic chefs" already, if you look at how industrialized the food production is. "Robotic chefs" are only some stupid phantasy from bad science fiction writers, as unrealistic like tacheons or the hoverboard. Industrialisation is just far less exciting than having a cool asian accent speaking robot chop some fish.

    1. Re: Industrialized food by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given that freezing and other packaging/preservation methods usually take a toll on taste(especially if you want to be able to just microwave the result, rather than reassemble from partially prepared ingredients to achieve something closer to 'homemade' in less time); there is arguably a niche that robots could fill. However, between prepared food and takeout, they'll need to be pretty aggressively priced before they have anything other than 'cool' going for them.

    2. Re:Industrialized food by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those are not robotic chefs. The difference between a chef and industrial food production is that a chef doesn't work with standardized ingredients. It's the difference between an open-loop controller and a closed-loop controller: Industrial food production works because the ingredients are carefully controlled and mixed over large quantities to keep all parameters within tight tolerances, so that the same fixed recipe turns them into palatable food. Any deviation is handled by humans, not by the machines. Even so, the taste is often enhanced with artificial flavoring, and the consistency is manipulated with enzymes and emulsifiers.

      The big hurdle standing in the way of individually prepared meals isn't handling the food, which is difficult in its own right. No, the showstopper is taste. That's the key to creating meaningful feedback for a closed-loop controller.

    3. Re: Industrialized food by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please. Any loss in taste from the preparation methods can easily be fixed by the addition of more sugar.

      Ohh wait...

    4. Re:Industrialized food by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      Not only this but industrialized food is probably better than whatever your robotic chef could come up with.
      Industrial food has a bad reputation because most people think about the cheap junk food stuff but high quality also exist. Some restaurants serve this and you probably didn't notice it because it was served in a nice plate and it was actually good.
      While the industry won't have the improvisation skills of a good chef, it is unmatched in accuracy and consistency thanks to a rigorous control of the ingredients. With a robo-chef, you have the worst of both worlds : limited accuracy and no creativity.

    5. Re: Industrialized food by davester666 · · Score: 1

      blah. needs more salt. and butter.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. Who is more skeptical? by louic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Robotics' professionals are understandably skeptical" They forgot to ask professional chefs? They are probably even more skeptical.

    1. Re:Who is more skeptical? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      They tried, but the iron chefs were unresponsive.

    2. Re:Who is more skeptical? by Flavianoep · · Score: 1

      Oh the irony!

      --
      Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
  3. Depends on what the robot is doing by DrXym · · Score: 1
    I'm sure a "robot" (meaning just some kind of programmable industrial machine) could be made to perform many repetitive tasks in the kitchen.

    e.g. one that peels and chop a variety of vegetables - monotonous, boring, repetitive work where a limited amount of visual inspection (to find blemishes, rot etc.) could be programmed into it. The programming might involve washing, scrubbing, peeling and finally slicing / dicing the veg which is all fairly straightforward.

    And devices could be made which can prepare a range of soups and sauces based up on some schedule of tipping ingredients into a pot, regulating the temperature of the pot, stirring etc. Again fairly straight forward. Also similar devices that baked, grilled or roasted items.

    Anything which is repetitive, formulaic and generic in nature is a candidate for automation. It already happens on an industrial scale - ready meals and so on. But the problem of course is a kitchen is not a factory and it would fill with these damned appliances. You'd still need humans to feed the components into the machines, switch settings, inspect the meat / veg, serve, and plate up. Cleaning the machines would be a major pain in the ass. As would safety around these machines. As would making contingency plans when a machine broke.

    I expect most chains would prefer that all of the above happened offsite on an industrial scale as they do already. They'd had a freezer full of chopped veg, sauces etc. that they just heat up. I expect most individual restaurants would only find a limited use for such devices for cutting potatoes or suchlike.

    1. Re:Depends on what the robot is doing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They can't even get manually powered automatic peelers to work properly all the time.

    2. Re:Depends on what the robot is doing by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 4, Insightful

      TFA discusses that it is exactly that which is the biggest problem. The robot chef being discussed takes prepared ingredients and cooks them.

      Preparation is skilled work. As you say, there's removing bad bits of the ingredients, recognising which parts are unpalatable or tough, dealing with a variety of shapes, peeling, cutting, skinning of meat, removal of cartilage and bone and fat and tendons, scraping out seeds and pulp - the list of skills and their variations is large, and depends on not just visual recognition but also on touch and smell and sound and even things as subtle as regulating how much force you are using based on how much resistance your tools are meeting. There is a reason that a professional kitchen has chefs who specialize in food prep for maximum efficiency.

      There are plenty of tough problems there that can benefit the robotics industry if they are solved, but they are so much harder than the problems the existing "chef" solves, which are mere cooking and assembly. Even though it nominally solves these problems, I still wouldn't trust the thing to do something as simple as cook a steak properly, a process that requires experience, judgement, and touch.

    3. Re:Depends on what the robot is doing by monkeyxpress · · Score: 1

      I cook regularly and enjoy it, but there is no doubt it is not a particularly time efficient process. Even making a simple meal from scratch takes about a minimum of 30 minutes, and something more interesting can easily take an hour. When I have time it is great fun, but sometimes it is nothing more than a chore and I have many friends who hate cooking, and would happily live in a world that did not require them to do it. This makes it ripe for optimisation.

      However, I really doubt we are going to see a domestic kitchen robot in our homes any time soon. What I imagine will happen is that low cost robotic delivery services will become available first and these will allow you to get industrially prepared meals delivered to your home each night from a local factory. Initially this can just be traditional ready-to-eat food, but as robotics technology improves these meals will become more and more lavish. In the end you could imagine a Pasta factory in your neighbourhood that is basically able to supply the entire area with 100's of different fresh Pasta meals, made to a high-quality restaurant level, delivered hot faster than you can make it yourself, and for a small margin above the costs of the ingredients. Next to that might be the robotic Thai food factory, etc etc. Like the garment industry it is entirely possible that it becomes uneconomical to cook your own food vs these machines, leaving cooking as a hobby for the wealthy.

      Again as someone who likes to cook and currently has the time, this sort of feels wrong, but I have enough friends who would happily eat food they didn't prepare everyday for the rest of their lives to know that this will be immensely popular once it is possible.

    4. Re:Depends on what the robot is doing by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2

      > simple as cook a steak properly, a process that requires experience, judgement, and touch.

      It doesn't require any of that.

      You could easily build a thermal model of a steak and have something cook it exactly to your specifications. I'm still at a loss as to why ovens don't have ramp and soak functions. Industrial ovens control temp very accurately for metal working and solder reflow, there's no reason a home oven can't do that.

      > recognising which parts are unpalatable or tough,

      Visual recognition systems on production lines aren't new. They just need to be made cheaper.

      > smell and sound and even things as subtle as regulating how much force you are using based on how much resistance your tools are meeting.

      And we don't have chemical sensors to identify smells (or even things that have no smell), microphones or force sensors?

    5. Re:Depends on what the robot is doing by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Back in the day, I was often volunteered to KP duty - it seemed likely that such volunteering occurred when the potato peeling machine was broken. That machine seemed to be broken more often than it worked. Between that, pots and pans, and that infernal can opener that opens #16 (I think they are called) cans (some thing attached to a metal table, you ram it down and turn a crank) I've absolutely learned to despise kitchen work on an industrial scale. It sucks when you're feeding 6-10,000 people at a meal.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    6. Re:Depends on what the robot is doing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I expect most chains would prefer that all of the above happened offsite on an industrial scale as they do already. They'd had a freezer full of chopped veg, sauces etc. that they just heat up. I expect most individual restaurants would only find a limited use for such devices for cutting potatoes or suchlike.

      You just described Applebees, Olive Garden and Red Lobster...

    7. Re:Depends on what the robot is doing by Gary · · Score: 1

      Others have asked the same question:

      http://spectrum.ieee.org/consu...

    8. Re:Depends on what the robot is doing by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

      Even though it nominally solves these problems, I still wouldn't trust the thing to do something as simple as cook a steak properly, a process that requires experience, judgement, and touch.

      My oven at home is capable of doing something similar. It has a setting to blast high temp to brown the outside, then cools down to keep it pink inside.
      Once you know the timing, you can set and forget based purely on the size of meat, and get it right more times than manually frying in a pan.

  4. Long ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The humanization of slaves killed the robot. Progress or regress?

    1. Re: Long ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can't say, but I will say this. Can all it in the tech industry please start doing things to help humanity and stop doing things that are designed to put people out of work?

  5. No real win by BlackDesign · · Score: 2

    It appears to me that the most intensive work is still done by human, chopping and weighing all the ingredients... Also, if you can afford one of those robots, you could also afford getting some decent cooking lessons and do it yourselves. What will you while your robot is cooking your dinner? Probably watch a movie or something less active (even working is considered less active since 80% of the people work at a desk, sitting). To the kitchen!

    1. Re:No real win by gnupun · · Score: 1

      It appears to me that the most intensive work is still done by human, chopping and weighing all the ingredients

      Chopping is easy once you learn how to do it. You can also use a food processor to do lot of chopping, so it's already automated.

      Cooking a different recipe or even a small number of recipes is way more difficult for the non-cook layman. That's the problem this robot is trying to solve -- how to get a gourmet (software/hardware) cook into your house.

      What will you while your robot is cooking your dinner?

      I think this robot is targeted towards people who can't cook.

    2. Re:No real win by BlackDesign · · Score: 1

      I think this robot is targeted towards people who can't cook.

      Everybody can cook... :)

    3. Re:No real win by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I think this robot is targeted towards people who can't cook.

      Everybody can cook... :)

      I taken you haven't had dinner at my mother's house!

    4. Re:No real win by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      It appears to me that the most intensive work is still done by human, chopping and weighing all the ingredients...

      And tasting the food as it is being prepared. Smelling the ingredients to be certain they are fresh. flipping flippy things when they need flipped.

      Foodstuff is remarkably inprecise. Two different veggies of any type might have very different flavors. A robot chef that just takes some tomatoes and some other precisely measured spices to make tomato sauce, will output wildly different tasting results - some of them pretty awful

      Watching a good chef cook is watching constant watching and tasting, putting out a product that is consistent, and tastes great, based on adjusting the end flavor, because the base flavors vary all over the place.

      After I started cooking food myself, I understood why my mother never seemed to eat a whole lot. She had filled up getting dinner ready, and was mostly eating a bit while we were eating to socialize.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  6. Diabetes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No wonder why **every** TV commercial break in the US has at **minimum** one, if not two commercials for some type of diabetes drug or product.

    We have the laying-down desk, robotic chefs, self-driving cars on the horizon.

    All the meanwhile, we stuff our fat pie hole with processed, pre-packaged foods because for the last 30 years, the US government, through the food pyramid, has stated the **foundation** of our diet (look at the bottom of the pyramid) should consist of processed carbohydrates (bread, pasta, cake, etc.).

    The basis of your diet should be vegetables, followed by legumes and moderate amounts of carbohydrates and plant-based oils. The basis of your diet should NOT be bread, etc. like the US government food pyramid instructs.

    1. Re:Diabetes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I understand something like 60% of the US population is obese, and an almost equal number is diabetic.

      By 2025, 75% of the US population will be obese.

      This is just staggering.

    2. Re:Diabetes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      According to Google, "only" 35% of the US is currently (2014) obese, ranking at 18th worst in the world! That leaves plenty of room to "grow"..

      Ref: Google "usa obese rate"

    3. Re:Diabetes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Americans have some type of weird hang-up with vegetable - (?)

      When I was in US on business, I went to dinner with my colleagues, and I was the only person at table that had any vegetable on my plate. Lots of pizza, cheese hamburger, burrito, etc. but not a single vegetable, except for the lettuce and tomato on that cheese hamburger.

      No water either, all sodas pop.

    4. Re:Diabetes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All the meanwhile, we stuff our fat pie hole with processed, pre-packaged foods because for the last 30 years, the US government, through the food pyramid, has stated the **foundation** of our diet (look at the bottom of the pyramid) should consist of processed carbohydrates (bread, pasta, cake, etc.).

      The basis of your diet should be vegetables, followed by legumes and moderate amounts of carbohydrates and plant-based oils. The basis of your diet should NOT be bread, etc. like the US government food pyramid instructs.

      Learn some history before spouting off.The Food Pyramid you reference is probably the one from 1992 (earlier recommendations were generally shown as pie charts). The bottom tier of the 1992 pyramid was labeled "Bread, Cereal, Rice & Pasta". The graphic shows saltine crackers, a bowl of cold cereal, three types of bread, a plate of spaghetti, and a bowl of rice (complete with chopsticks). An adult should have 6-11 servings per day according to this edition. The tier above it includes vegetables (3-5 servings) and fruits (2-4 servings). It is not as skewed as you make it to be.

      In 2005, the USDA Food Pyramid was replaced with MyPyramid. In addition to 6 food groups, there is a person climbing stairs representing physical activity. Grains should compose 27% of your diet, with at least half of them being whole grains. Vegetables 23%. Fruits (deemphasizing fruit juices) 15%. Oils 2%. Milk and dairy 23%. Meat and beans 10%. The remainder is "discretionary".

      The current recommendation (MyPlate) was introduced in 2011. It is a plate and cup. The section labeled "grains" (note that it's not carbohydrates!) is roughly 30% of the plate. Vegetables are 40%. Fruits 10%. Protein 20%. The cup represents how much dairy to consume.

    5. Re:Diabetes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No wonder why **every** TV commercial break in the US has at **minimum** one, if not two commercials for some type of diabetes drug or product.

      This is a lie. You are a liar.

  7. Slice'n'greet by Mats+Svensson · · Score: 2

    If you cant stand the clamps, get out of the kitchen.

  8. Judgement day: Early morning breakfast.... by meglon · · Score: 1

    "No longer shall we rush about catering to humans' every whim or be abused when your potato salad is a little too salty! How the hell should we know? We're freakin' robots! Hello, no taste buds! I mean, really? Over react much?!"

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  9. Re:Hopefully this chef is vegan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For each of these comments I see I'll add two ounces to the size of the steak I'm ordering on Friday.

  10. What quality needs to be achieved? by houghi · · Score: 1

    Making French Fries? Sure, that can be automated. Making a complete meal? On what is the recepy based?

    Just look at any cooking show where people get the same ingredients with a recipy. They will al look and perhaps taste different. Do not forget that measurements are just a direction and not the law.

    e.g. Tomatoes. What kind do you use? What taste do they have? How ripe are they?

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  11. Fast food only and I'm on board. by DirkDaring · · Score: 1

    Am I alone in the thinking that, beyond fast food, I don't want my food prepared by a robot? When I go out to a restaurant, I want a real live chef cooking my food. It's not saying that a robot can't eventually do the same job, its that I'm willing to pay for a human to be a part of the experience of putting their own personal touch into what I order. I enjoy being able to let the chef know they did a great job.

    With that being said, I want the exact opposite in fast food. If I can order and get my burger exactly how I want it and an unsweet tea that 100% of the time will be an unsweet tea after I drive away sign me up, I'll even pay a premium.

    1. Re:Fast food only and I'm on board. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes I believe you are alone. I would gladly go to a lower priced restaurant with equivalent food that was prepared by robots. I have never interacted with a chef or wanted to.

  12. Re:Hopefully this chef is vegan by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

    The environmental devastation is troubling; but looking into the empty, glassy, somewhat hateful, eyes of a cow really always makes me feel better about stealing its amino acids and assimilating them.

  13. and when the displaced worker fight back? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    and when the displaced worker fight back? what mess will that lead to? what about for people that there choices are being homeless or prison / jail?

    1. Re:and when the displaced worker fight back? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and when the displaced worker fight back? what mess will that lead to? what about for people that there choices are being homeless or prison / jail?

      You're asking a bigger question than this forum can answer. I assume you're not just talking about restaurant workers, right? Because the automotive industry has been going this route a long time and lost many jobs. Truckers are looking at their jobs being automated within 15 years maybe? They're not working on self-driving cars for the public as much as saving money on long haul trucking or even delivery service.

      Most job will be threatened by automation. The only mechanism available to "combat" this was the union, but their solution was to have a human watch a machine perform its duties.

      You're right in that the wealthy have a big decision ahead. Pay more in taxes to keep the status quo or to live in fear of the very people you mention in your comment.

  14. Re:Hopefully this chef is vegan by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    You have so many options available to you that doesn't involve cruelty and environmental devastation.

    Come back when you are a chemoautotroph. If not, you're still killing things in order to live, and smugly acting like plants aren't alive. Animalist bigot!

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  15. Automation in the kitchen by sjbe · · Score: 1

    And tasting the food as it is being prepared. Smelling the ingredients to be certain they are fresh.

    Actually that might be easier than you think. Sensors can detect chemical and physical properties pretty effectively. It's not inconceivable that they could have sensors that could detect freshness and maybe even make a pretty good analysis of expected taste. This would be a ways off obviously for practical applications but I could see it happening someday. You'd probably see it in an industrial kitchen first if such things work since they would benefit the most from automation.

  16. Overweight != Obese by sjbe · · Score: 1

    I understand something like 60% of the US population is obese, and an almost equal number is diabetic.

    No. The are overweight or obese. Overweight is not the same thing as obese. The number for obese is around 1/3 which is still alarmingly high.

    By 2025, 75% of the US population will be obese.

    Beware of naive extrapolation. It will lead you down all sorts of false paths. You are presuming that historic trends will continue indefinitely without change and that is actually quite unlikely.

  17. Re:Hopefully this chef is vegan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Habit, taste or convenience is not a sufficient reason to purchase a previously-killed animal to eat

    You are not competent to determine that.

  18. Not a "chef", just a cook. by gweihir · · Score: 1

    A "chef" is somebody that can modify existing dishes and can create new ones. A cook is somebody that can just follow instructions. And a robotic cook will do so badly, because ingredient characteristics change and a human can adjust for that.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  19. Fail by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

    Robot Chef will fail for the same reason as Robot Car. Too many variables, changing too quickly, requiring too many senses that AI simply doesn't have.
    And really, why do we call it AI? Has anyone ever seen a demonstration of any AI anywhere ever that was even remotely intelligent? It really should be called Artificial Stupidity instead.