Contact:
+91 93534 25649
Login & Learn
Could robot chefs make real ones obsolete? If you love to cook at home then it’s unlikely you’ll ever desire an automaton to help you around the house. If you love to eat out, you might not be bothered who makes it so long as it is delicious. With the seemingly unstoppable march of machines, we are likely to see robot chefs very, very soon.
There will likely always be a place for handmade recipes, even in the distant future, but fast food is likely to be one of the earliest “victims” of the rise of the robot in the workplace. Let’s take a look at some examples that are in development. These babies are set to revolutionize our culinary needs forever.
Home cooking automation is coming soon
Moley, a UK based robotics company, is set to unleash one of the world’s first robotic kitchen. Their product will feature an advanced, fully functional robot integrated professional and domestic kitchen. The company claims that their robot chefs will have the skill and flair of a master chef. Their prototype even premiered at the Hanover Messe International Robotics Show to widespread acclaim.
Their robot chefs are the products of twelve months of intensive development in collaboration with Shadow Robotics, Yachtline, DYSEGNO, Sebastian Conran and Stanford University Professor Mark Cutkosky.
The device consists of a pair of fully articulated robotic hands that can, in theory, reproduce the entire function of the human hand. Apparently, it is even capable of providing sufficient dexterity to rival human chefs with respect to speed, sensitivity, and movement. Moley managed to employ the services of Master Chef Tim Anderson who won the BBC Master Chef title. His cooking skills were recorded for use on the system. Their robotic chef is able to mimic his every motion, nuance and flourish. All of this can be replayed exactly as if Tim was there, except with robot arms and hands.
The aim of the developers of the robot is to support it with thousands of recipes in the form of apps. Each and every lucky owner will even be able to record their own recipes thanks to a built in motion capture device. Once recorded and saved, the robot chefs can mimic your every move. Their hands are to be produced by Shadow Robot who designed a highly articulated system of 20 motors, 129 sensors, and 24 joints.
It would need some human assistance
As promising as a fully automated burger maker is, it would appear to need some human help. Although the robot will be cooking it would need some assistance to fill the gaps.
“[You will] learn to do everything that’s part of running a restaurant in San Francisco,” the advert explained. It detailed the need to take customer orders, schedule shifts and take out the trash, of course.
Of course, there are doubts
Two MIT economists, Eric Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, do have their doubts. They believe that more advanced machines are just over the horizon. Though their long term impact will be beneficial overall, it will lead to short term strife. They will displace many human workers who may have great difficulty retraining to find other employment.
Though we have had this problem before, the pace of development and improvement in our modern world could cause problems. The transition period would be difficult to navigate owing to the speed, depth, and breadth of the change that will happen.
With Moley’s progress so far, it will only be a matter of time before any issues are resolved for domestic applications. Could it even build a new income stream for ambitious hobbyists? Perhaps future robot chefs could teach us how to cook, though that might defeat the object of buying one in the first place. Who knows. For now, we can only dream of the possibilities this could bring us all. Once the price tag has dropped considerably of course.
For some, the idea of having a machine cook for you might seem like sacrilege. There are many out there who actually enjoy cooking. For those in the culinary industry, the prospect of losing your job to a machine must be daunting. This technology could alleviate the workload at home and put you out of a job, literally a double edged sword of sorts. Whatever your views, the introduction of robot chefs could change the way we eat forever. What are your thoughts? Would you install one in your home? Let’s start a conversation.
