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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Robotics, AI & Data

Small Robot Company Gets £200,000 VC Investment, Surpasses Equity Crowdfunding Goal

Small Robot Company, which makes precision agricultural robots, confirmed today via email that 7percent Ventures has invested £200,000 pounds (~$259,000 USD) in the company and is now Small Robot’s lead investor.

Small Robot is running its equity crowdfunding on CrowdCube, and has raised £2,003,880 ($2,596,000 USD) from 1670 investors so far. What we don’t know right now is whether 7percent’s money is included among that tally, or if it’s a separate investment. We’ve reached out to Small Robot to clarify.

Regardless, Small Robot has far surpassed its initial £700,000 fundraising target, and the campaign still has one day left to attract new investors. Advertising 7percent’s participation could be a way to goose last minute money from those on the fence or considering investing even more.

Small Robot makes autonomous robots for precision farming, and its robotic roster includes Tom, which maps the farm and Dick, which zaps weeds with electricity to kill them. Eventually they’ll add Harry, a no-till drilling robot. The Tom robot is currently in working trials on 20 farms across the UK.

This is the second equity crowdfunding campaign for Small Robot. The company crowdfunded £1.2 million ($1.6 million) in 2018, and has also received £1.4 million ($1.8 million) in non-equity funding from a UK government innovation fund.

When I spoke with Small Robot Company Co-Founder, Sam Watson Jones, last month, he said the company was going the equity crowdfunding route because there weren’t very many European early stage VCs that would fund companies still developing their product. Evidently Watson Jones found one.

As I also noted back in January, Small Robot Company is going to have to bulk up its warchest because there is some well-funded competition in the precision ag robot space. Farmwise raised $14.5 million and French company Naïo raised more than $15 million for their respective robotic weed killers.

But it’s not all just money, and with today’s investment from 7percent, Small Robot Company may also get some VC-backed connections and support that the crowd just can’t offer.

Congressional Panel to Discuss Self-Driving Vehicles Tomorrow

Autonomous vehicles will be the subject of a panel at the US House of Representatives tomorrow, in what is a small step towards regulating the emerging industry.

According to Reuters, an Energy and Commerce subcommittee will hear from a broad range of witnesses, including:

…John Bozzella, who heads an auto trade association representing General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen and others; Gary Shapiro, who heads the Consumer Technology Association, and Jeff Tumlin, director of transportation at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Significant self-driving car testing is occurring in San Francisco and the surrounding area.

At issue, obviously, is the safety of self-driving vehicles on the road. Where will they be allowed to travel? How fast? What is the liability surrounding accidents involving self-driving cars? These questions loom over the nascent autonomous vehicle industry.

The future of self-driving vehicles also impacts the the food delivery space. Companies such as Udelv, Gatik, and AutoX are all working on their own self-driving delivery solutions using full-sized cars and vans. They’ll need a broad regulatory framework before they are able to scale and gain any widespread adoption.

Nuro, another entrant in the self-driving delivery space, uses smaller, low speed vehicles. Just last week, the company got an exemption from the federal government, allowing its passenger-less, pod-like delivery vehicles on public roads.

Autonomous vehicles could usher in a new era of food delivery for both restaurants and grocery retailers. Self-driving cars could operate around the clock (and never steal your food). But the industry a long way to go, and there’s a lot we still need to figure out. Tomorrow’s panel meeting at least moves the ball forward.

Robot Bartender Now Serving Drinks in Tokyo Train Station

Just when you thought Tokyo couldn’t get any more futuristic, the city’s subway system has a new robot bartender serving up drinks to commuters.

The Daily Mail reported this week that the Yoronotaki company has launched the Zeroken Robo Tavern in the Ikebukuro train station. The small pop-up opened on Jan. 23 and will run as a pilot to gauge customer reaction to the concept until March 19th.

The robot itself is just an articulating arm with an LED face. Customers enter their order via separate kiosk and then the robot whirrs into action, pouring out a beer in 40 seconds, or mixing up a cocktail for something a little stronger.

The robot is made by QBIT Robotics, which also built the Henn Na robot barista, also in Tokyo. The robot costs $82,000, which is evidently three years’ salary for an average bartender in Japan. Yoronotaki told the Daily Mail that labor shortages in Japan are part of the reason it is trying the robot out.

Japan has a greying population with more than one-third of its people over the age of 65. Many companies are working on robotic solutions to help stave off any potential labor crisis. Sony has teamed up with Carnegie-Mellon University to create food robots and has big ambitions for a robotic home cooking assistant. Connected Robots, which makes the takoyaki-cooking Octochef robot, raised raised a ¥850M ($7.8 million USD) last year to expand its food robot lineup. And in 2018, the Dawn Avatar cafe used robot servers that were operated remotely by people with disabilities.

Given how small the retail spaces in Japan can be, and the volume of people that travel Tokyo’s subway system, there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing more robot bartenders pop up across Japan.

Nuro Debuts New R2 Self-Driving Vehicle, Gets Federal OK for Use on Public Roads

Nuro unveiled its second-generation autonomous delivery vehicle today and announced that it’s been given the greenlight to drive on public roads, thanks to some federal exemptions.

The new R2 is another electric, low speed, driverless delivery vehicle from Nuro that will replace the R1. According to a corporate blog post, the company is no longer custom-making its vehicles, as it did with the R1. For the R2, Nuro has partnered with a Michigan-based company called Roush to design and assemble the new models.

According to the announcement post, the R2 features a more durable body so it can handle bad weather, as well as an updated sensor array, two-thirds more cargo space (without increasing the width of the vehicle), and a new temperature control system. A new custom battery also means that the R2 can run all day.

But all these bells and whistles are useless if it’s not allowed to drive on public roads. Which is why Nuro applied for regulatory exemption from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration. As Nuro points out in its post explaining the move, today’s regulations were made for traditional cars. But the R2 is a totally different type of vehicle. From the post:

Today’s decision shows that “exemption” can mean more safety. It allows us to replace the mirrors relied on by human drivers with cameras and other sensors. We can round the edges of the vehicle body to take up less road space, and make it safer for those around us. In addition, we can remove the windshield meant to let human drivers see out and keep passengers in — instead using a specially designed panel at the vehicle’s front that absorbs energy, better protecting pedestrians. And we won’t have to ever turn off the rearview cameras that help R2 see (part of a rule meant to avoid distracting human drivers), providing a constant 360-degree view with no blind spots.

The company says it will be rolling out delivery on public roads in Houston in the coming weeks. Getting the federal thumbs up should help Nuro and its customers like Kroger, Walmart and Domino’s expand driverless delivery into new cities. As we’ve discussed before, technology is changing rapidly, and state and local governments are grappling with creating regulations that balance innovation with safety, accessibility and revenue in real time.

With its new design that can handle inclement weather, we’ll have to see if Nuro starts expanding delivery programs beyond the bright and sunny climates of Arizona and Texas. Will it move in on Refraction AI’s snowbound, Michigan turf?

Technology like Nuro’s has the potential to drastically change the delivery game. Pod-like vehicles can run all day and night, quietly delivering meals, groceries and more to your door with just the tap of a button. And now that Nuro has the OK from the government, we’ll be seeing a lot more of them on the road.

Madison, WI Regulators Aim to Limit Robot Food Delivery

Looks like Starship’s delivery robots may be blocked from roaming the city streets of Madison, WI. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that the local Transportation Policy and Planning Board there unanimously recommended a measure yesterday that would prohibit the delivery robots everywhere in the city except for the University of Wisconsin.

Starship robots have been running around the UW campus making food and drink deliveries since November of last year. Madison’s Assistant City Attorney told The State Journal that the purpose of the proposed rule is to prevent other companies from coming in and jamming up the city’s sidewalks with robots.

The new rule wouldn’t impact the robots that are currently making deliveries to students, faculty and staff at UW. It would just bar them from expanding outside of campus. The new rule would not prevent other robot delivery companies from also operating on the UW campus.

One of the most intriguing aspects of robot delivery is watching how cities around the country have to grapple with the issue in real time. How do you balance the convenience robot delivery with equity and accessibility issues, potential losses in city revenues and liability issues? This is all new territory and cities have to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation.

In 2017, San Francisco enacted tight restrictions around robot delivery, but recently relented a bit and gave Postmates a permit to test its Serve robot in the city. Cities like Scottsdale, AZ and Houston have been popular testing grounds for autonomous vehicles. In 2018, Dallas, TX allowed robot delivery on select sidewalks. Kiwi’s robots were allowed to roam the sidewalks of Berkeley, CA. And last year Washington state passed a law allowing robot deliveries (under certain conditions) statewide.

From a business perspective, Madison’s move probably won’t have too much of an impact on Starship. The company is focusing on college and corporate campuses, and has a growing number of delivery programs running on colleges around the country.

From a city perspective, I can’t really fault Madison for this move. I think delivery robots like Starship’s are inevitable as they can run all day and night and potentially make food delivery cheaper and more accessible to everyone. But there are real issues surrounding their deployment on public streets. It’s fine to put a pause on robots to figure things out, it just shouldn’t be a full stop on the issue.

LG’s CLoi ServeBot Picks Up Shifts at CJ Foodville in Seoul, South Korea

The restaurant CJ Foodville has a new server clocking in at its Cheiljemyunso location in Seoul, South Korea — though this one probably won’t accept tips. ZDNet writes that LG’s CLoi ServeBot is now autonomously shuttling food to tables and taking away empty dishes.

The CLoi ServeBot is self-driving robot with four vertically stacked trays that can navigate around tables and people (even playing music to give bystanders a heads up that its approaching). The ServeBot also features an LED screen that shows facial expressions.

It’s not a surprise that these ServeBots are working at CJ Foodville. The restaurant chain formed a partnership with LG last year to develop a number of different food robots. This past November, CJ Foodville installed an LG ChefBot at its Veeps buffet restaurant to cook up noodles.

The CLoi ServeBot is among a wave of server robots hitting restaurants in Asia and beyond. Bear Robotics just raised $32 million to scale up its Penny server robot. And PuduTech’s BellaBot, which sports LED feline features instead of human ones, showed off its server robot at CES this year.

All of them, however, do basically the same thing — cart plates around. That’s not to denigrate the engineering feat that a self-driving, dish-carrying robot is. It’s more that these robots are on a path from being a novelty to becoming a commodity. What features can a company add that will really set their robots apart from the competition?

Thankfully for those in the server robot space, there are plenty of restaurants in the world, so there’s plenty of potential robot business to go around.

Hey Robot Vending Companies, Y’all Should Team Up!

There are a lot of smart people currently working for robot vending machine companies. Building mechanisms that autonomously make lattes, mix salads and serve hot pizza isn’t easy. But after writing about startups like Briggo, Chowbotics and Bake Xpress, I really hope their marketing departments are smart enough to talk to each other because there is a big opportunity to bundle some robot food services.

For instance, it would be cool to have a Briggo Coffee Haus right next to a Bake Xpress in an airport. That way, when you order a robo-coffee, you could also grab a robo-choco-croissant. Or there should be a Yo-Kai Express next to a Chowbotics’s Sally so you could have soup and salad.

The nice thing about vending machines is that they don’t take up very much space and can carve out their own culinary niche without competing with one another. So as more vending machines come online, it could be entirely possible to have a whole automated food court offering all different kinds of cuisines tucked away in the corner of an airport terminal or the lobby of a hospital.

This means that there are plenty of opportunities for vending machine companies to mix and match promotional and marketing opportunities. Buy an Alberts smoothie, get ten percent off your Fresh Bowl salad. Order a Basil Street Pizza, and get a dollar off your Cafe X iced tea.

Obviously, there aren’t a lot of these high-end vending machines out in the world right now. Yo-Kai Express lists just 10 locations, half of which are at private corporate campuses. Cafe X has just two locations now. Alberts is only in Europe and Basil St. hasn’t even launched yet.

But that newness may actually work in these companies’ favor. Perhaps they can coordinate as they determine new installation locales. They are all going after the same types of locations anyway — airports, hospitals, corporate and college campuses. Why not team up and give those locations more robot bang for the buck?

Dishcraft Publicly Rolls Out Dishes as a Service to the Bay Area

Since Dishcraft Robotics, the robot dishwashing startup, came out of stealth last year, we’ve known that its business model would be dishes as a service. In a Linkedin post yesterday, Dishcraft Founder and CEO, Linda Pouliot talked publicly for the first time about the roll of that service, dubbed Dishcraft Daily.

Dishcraft Daily quietly launched in September of last year and is currently being used by a number of unnamed corporate campuses, cafeterias and other high-volume eating venues. Each day, Dishcraft arrives at the end of lunch service, picks up all the dirty dishes that have been stacked into special carts, and drops off clean ones. Dirty dishes are taken back to the Dishcraft facility and loaded into the cleaning robot.

As we wrote last year at the time of the company’s launch:

[Dishcraft’s robot] grabs each dish individually and inserts it into a rotating wheel. The wheel spins the dirty plate face down and into position where it’s sprayed with water and scrubbed clean in seconds. The scrubbed plate is then rotated again where cameras and computer vision software inspect it for any debris left on the plate before exiting the machine into a dishrack or going back in for another scrub.

Once outside the robot, dishes are sent to be sanitized and stacked to be shipped back out the next day.

I spoke with Pouliot by phone this week and she said since the company’s launch last year, its robot is now faster and has improved the AI function that detects dirt and other matter that might linger on the dishes. The company is opening up a new facility next month that will be able to handle dishes from up to 50,000 diners a day.

When writing about robots and automation, there is always the question of the human cost. Dishcraft’s robot is automating a job that is not only done by a person but also serves as a good entry-level job that doesn’t require a high degree of specialization.

However, restaurants are currently facing a labor shortage, with turnover as high as 150 percent. Restaurants are also grappling with increased pressure from the current administration that is cracking down on undocumented workers, a labor pool restaurants rely on.

While Pouliot wouldn’t provide specific pricing, she said that Dishcraft Daily is comparable to existing dishwashing solutions currently available to dining operators. Additionally, Pouliot claims that the Dishcraft robot’s computer vision and AI are more accurate and impartial (i.e., what constitutes “clean”) than a human to create consistently cleaner dishes.

In her post, Pouliot also said that Dishcraft can help companies with zero-waste initiatives. A corporate office feeding employees probably doesn’t have dishwashing facilities or a place to store hundreds of plates on-site. Rather than setting out single-use plates (even compostable ones may have forever chemicals in them), companies can offer reusable, clean plates.

Right now, Dishcraft is only servicing customers between San Francisco and San Jose. We’ll have to see if the land that brought us software as a service will embrace dishes as a service.

New Bake Xpress Robot Vending Machine Makes Croissants and Pizzas

One of the big surprises from my food robot tour of San Francisco last year was just how delicious the bread from the Le Bread Xpress’ eponymous vending machine was. For $4 and a 90 second wait, you got a light and buttery baguette warmed to perfection.

So I’m excited to (eventually) venture back down to the Bay Area to try out the company’s brand new Bake Xpress machine, which doles out between 15 and 18 different items, including croissants, turkey and brie sandwiches and pizzas.

The original Le Bread Xpress machine launched roughly three years ago, and while there were only three locations in the U.S., there were more than 120 in Europe. Baguettes, understandably, are more popular in France than they are here.

While the bread was indeed delicious, the problem with the original Le Bread Xpress was proximity. The one I visited was in the Stonestown Galleria, which, if you’re not familiar with San Francisco, is way out of the way. Far outside the city core, it’s not really imaginable that someone would travel to use it, and even then, that warm loaf of bread would be cold by the time you got home.

Benoit Herve, CEO and Founder of Le Bread Xpress, told me by phone this week that the new machine is meant to offer a more complete meal solution. “We have the ability to provide a food menu from breakfast to dinner,” he said. Croissants in the morning, turkey sandwiches at lunch and pizza for dinner.

The Bake Xpress can hold and refrigerate up to 80 items. Each item is in a box with a special barcode that the machine scans to know exactly where each croissant, sandwich and pizza is located. The food is all parbaked, so when a customer places an order for a hot item, the machine grabs the box and heats the item using a combination of microwave, infrared and convection heating, depending on the item. Food takes anywhere from 60 seconds to three minutes to heat up.

Right now there are eight Bake Xpresses operating. Of those, however, only one at the University of California at Berkeley is available to the public. A second one is coming online next month, either replacing the old machine at Stonestown or going into a unnamed hospital facility, according to Herve.

Bake Xpress has partnered with an undisclosed food service provider to help with the placement and operation of its machines. Le Bread Xpress gets its revenue by renting out the machines and taking a cut of sales.

Bake Xpress is emblematic of the golden age of vending machines that we are entering. Companies like Le Bread Xpress, Chowbotics, and Yo-Kai Express are all looking to level up automated food service by offering high quality fare at a reasonable price that’s available 24 hours a day. All of these companies are targeting college campuses, hospitals, airports and other high-traffic areas where people want something more than chips and soda at odd hours of the night.

What’s more, because these machines have a relatively small footprint, it’s less of a zero sum game. There’s no reason you can’t have Chowbotic’s Sally next to a Bake Xpress if you want a sandwich and a salad.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see co-location/marketing deals between complementary vending robots pop up as they all gain more traction. Something to look for on my next food robot tour of San Francisco.

Robots Deliver Food to People Quarantined in China Hotel

One of the most useful things about robots, we are told by the companies developing them, is that they can do the work that is too manual, repetitive and dangerous for humans. That last part is being put to the test in China, where robots have been spotted delivering food to quarantined people amid that country’s rapidly escalating Coronavirus outbreak.

The UK’s Daily Star reports that a hotel in Hangzhou, China, more than 200 tourists were being isolated after a flight arrived carrying some passengers from Wuhan, the epicenter of the viral outbreak.

Staff at the quarantined hotel dispatched 16 robots, one for each floor of the building, to deliver food to people in an effort to limit cross contamination. A video posted to the China Trends YouTube channel two days ago shows the robot, calling itself “peanut,” rolling down the hotel hallway, announcing its presence as people pop out from their rooms to grab food.

#Coronavirus: Robots Deployed to Deliver Meals to Travelers in Isolation #Wuhan

One assumes/hopes that each robot is also getting a good scrubdown after each trip.

There are nearly 6,000 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus in mainland China, and 132 people have died. Roughly 60 million people are on lockdown in China.

The fact that robots are being put to use in this way would be pretty cool if it wasn’t so deadly serious. But it does highlight how robots can be used in situations that are hazardous to humans and help save lives (everyone needs to eat). Hopefully, more robots will be employed to limit human exposure to the virus, and we’ll be able to apply lessons learned here to help curb this and future outbreaks.

Newsletter: Should Food Robots Be Humanoid?

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Say you’re in a college dining hall. In front of you are two smoothie making machines. Both make equally delicious and fresh smoothies, but one is a vending machine, where you watch a cup move on a rail back and forth as ingredients are dispensed into it, and the other features a robot with smiling LED face and two arms that swirl about to make your drink.

Which one would you choose? The one with embedded automation, or the one that looks like a robot?

I ask because just weeks ago I pondered whether food automation startups should even use the term “robot” any longer. Robot comes with inflated sci-fi expectations and baggage, and as Cafe X shuttered some locations and Zume shut down its robot-assisted pizza delivery business, it seemed like articulating arms had fallen out of favor.

But in just the past week, I’ve written about not one but two different startups that are all-in on building humanoid-looking food service robots. Macco Robotics’ Kime (key-may) has two arms that have been used mostly for pouring beer, and Robojuice just yesterday announced the upcoming launch of its first robot-made juice and smoothie station.

The Co-Founder and CEO of Robojuice told me that his company went with a humanoid because “People are more used to ordering from people.” Plus, as Robojuice’s website touts, there is an “entertainment twist” to having a face and arms.

For its part, Macco isn’t stopping with just arms. Macco’s CTO told me that while a humanoid shape may not be the most efficient, his company’s ultimate goal is to build a freestanding, autonomous robot kitchen helper. In essence a Rosey the robot from the Jetsons.

Using robotic arms does have a certain theatricality built into it. Cafe X built its kiosk to almost be a stage for its robotic arms that would do things like wave to customers.

But how quickly does that novelty wear off? If I’m in a hurry and I just want a smoothie or a latte, I don’t need theatrics. I need caffeine, now.

Then there is the cost. Robotic arms aren’t cheap, so there is a question around scale. (Robojuice says its robotic arms will be cheaper because they use hydraulics instead of motors).

Like so many things, the answer to whether you want to build a human-looking robot for food service is probably that it depends on the scenario. Tourist traps and even places like grocery stores might want that added entertainment value since there is a steady stream of new people who won’t get bored by it, while airports might be better served by a literal machine cranking out food and drinks.

At the end of the day though, what really matters is the food. No amount of LED smiles and swirling arms can save a bad drink.

Delivery of Made-to-Order Food from Grocers Could Be Huge

Last week, Instacart announced that in addition to grocery, it was rolling out delivery of made-to-order foods from supermarkets. Think: deli made sandwiches and such.

As someone who often grabs a rotisserie chicken or a handmade flatbread pizza from my local grocery store, the expansion of delivery into made to order food could be a big boon for grocers and delivery services alike. If I’m doing my online grocery shopping for same day (or two hour even) delivery, why not throw in a prepared meal so I don’t have to cook that night?

For delivery services like Door Dash, Postmates and Uber Eats that are currently flirting with grocery delivery, this could open up a path to a deeper relationship, it’s a cooked meal, just from the market instead of a restaurant. And for food retailers, this could not only act as another source of revenue, but provide a halo to sell other goods along with a dinner order. You know, maybe add a pint of ice cream to that rotisserie chicken order.

You Should Attend Customize, Our Food Personalization Summit

I’m going to turn this part of the newsletter over to my colleague, Catherine Lamb, who is chairing our upcoming Customize conference on food personalization. She has a lovely writeup on the event perfectly encapsulating why you should attend!

This week UBS published a report that personalized nutrition could generate annual revenues of $64 billion, and that companies large and small should take note. But how are companies capitalizing on the personalization trend across the food system, from CPG to restaurants to the home kitchen?

That’s exactly the question we’ll explore at Customize, The Spoon’s NYC summit on food personalization coming up on February 27. We’ve recruited an amazing list of speakers to discuss some of the most cutting-edge topics in the future of personalization.

Spoon readers can get a 15 percent discount if they use code SPOON15. If you’re media and would like to attend drop us a line.

Flippy Flips Upside Down for QSRs, Will It Impact Miso’s Crowdfunding?

Miso Robotics is taking its cooking robot, Flippy, and uhh, flipping it upside down in a bid to bring in more QSR business. Today the company revealed a prototype of its next version of cooking technology dubbed Miso Robot on a Rail (ROAR).

Rather than being fixed to the ground, the new ROAR is installed on a rail above the cooking surface. It still uses a robotic arm to flip burgers and remove fry baskets, but it now glides back and forth overhead.

According to the press announcement, the new ROAR was developed using market feedback from QSRs that wanted more of a zero footprint solution that doesn’t get in the way of busy human cooks. The current iteration of Flippy is stationary, and surrounding the arm itself, there is a safety zone taped around it to keep human limbs way from automated movements. So it can take up quite a bit of space.

The Flippy brain has also been augmented with new cooking capabilities. In addition to grilling burgers, Miso’s robot can fry up chicken wings, onion rings, popcorn shrimp, sweet potato waffle fries, corn dogs and more.

The ROAR won’t be available commercially until the end of this year. In the meantime, Miso also announced that it is introducing an intermediate model that uses a floor-mounted rail system. Nation’s Restaurant News reports that the new ROAR will cost roughly $30,000. This is about half what the first Flippy’s cost, which was ultimately too high a price for a lot of QSRs.

The news of ROAR also comes as Miso Robotics is equity crowdfunding its next fundraise. While Miso has raised $13 million from traditional VCs in the past, the company is now using the SeedInvest platform to try and raise $30 million. Will the new Flippy sway a few more everyday investors?

The Flippy ROAR also comes in a time of flux for articulating robotic arms. Cafe X closed three of its locations, and Zume shut down its robot-assisted pizza delivery service. Other startups, however, are, like Miso, all-in on robotic limbs. Macco Robotics and Robojuice both believe that a more humanoid-like form factor will connect better with customers.

While Flippy is on display at Caliburger in Pasadena, the new ROAR seems more geared towards production and throughput. With a lower price, we’ll have to see if QSRs put in their order for one.