Today Miso Robotics, a maker of restaurant robots, unveiled the second generation of its flagship robot Flippy, the Flippy 2. The new robot, which was developed in part with feedback from strategic innovation partner White Castle, represents a significant jump forward in capabilities, customizability, and design.
Some of the new capabilities and features of the Flippy 2 include:
- Takes over more work: The original Flippy requires human help on both sides of the robot to complete a task. The Flippy 2 basically makes the fry station a closed loop system where items are loaded into the fryer, fried and then placed into a hot holding area, all without assistance from a human.
- Hot Food Transfer: The Flippy 2 transfers hot food items to the holding area, which eliminates a potential danger-spot for human and prevents burns and oil spillage.
- Customizable Basket System: The Flippy 2 has a new customizable basket management system. Called AutoBin, the new system can be tailored for the specific needs of a kitchen, allowing for specialty items like vegetables and fish to get their own dedicated basket to prevent cross-contamination.
- Smaller Footprint: The Flippy 2 is smaller than the original, with 56% reduced aisle intrusion, a 13% reduction in height and less surfaces to clean.
Like the original, the Flippy 2 uses machine vision to aid in the task of operating a cooking station, but just oversees more of the overall process. According to the company, the Flippy2 has increased throughput of 30% compared to the original and can handle up to 60 baskets per hour.
The Flippy 2 makes its debut in the White Castle’s Chicago 42 location. From there, company CEO Mike Bell told The Spoon that they plan to deploy the new robot in as many as 10 White Castle locations in 2022. And while White Castle represents a significant portion of the trials, Bell says the company will also roll out pilots with other partners.
“Currently, we have plans to deploy about a dozen additional pilots in the next few months, and we’re also in talks with several top restaurants and QSRs who are interested in bringing Flippy to their kitchens, both in the U.S. and overseas,” said Bell.
That Miso is already launching a second generation of its flagship robot is a testament to the company’s stature as a pioneer in what is a fairly new and nascent industry. Miso first debuted the original Flippy in 2017 at the Caliburger in Pasadena, and started working with White Castle last year. All of those trials allowed the company to get data and critical feedback about the robot in real-world, high-volume kitchens, the result of which are the improvements they are debuting today.
“The truth is that Flippy has been in development for more than five years,” said Bell. “We’re truly the only company learning at the level we are learning about real kitchen operations. And Flippy 2 is the result of many conversations and the feedback we’ve received from valuable industry partners, like White Castle, who deployed Flippy for the first time in September 2020.”
You can see the new Flippy working the fry station in the video below.
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