It’s one thing to write about food making robots — but it’s so much better when you can see food-making robots in action. Which is why it’s cool to see the video Kitchen Robotics released this week of its awesomely named Beastro robot making meals.
Kitchen Robotics is in the business of automating ghost kitchens with hardware and software tools. Beastro is its all-in-one standalone kiosk. Similar to RoboEatz, Gastronomous and Karakuri, the Beastro stores all the ingredients, then dispenses them into a bowl where they are mixed and heated into a meal. Beastro is approximately 12 ft. long by 6 ft. wide and 7 ft. tall, and weighs 1,790 lbs. It can make 45 dishes an hour including Italian and Asian cuisines, as well as soups, salads and more.
We got a glimpse at the Beastro just about a year ago with a teaser video, but that didn’t show the robot working with actual food. This time around you get to see Beastro’s robotic grippers holding the bowl, sliding it around as it adds ingredients, and using the spinning induction cooker to prepare the dish.
Adding robots to a ghost kitchen can make a lot of sense. Robots can work odd (or all) hours, and churn out meals in minutes. They can also be tied in to ordering systems so meals can automatically (and algorithmically) be coordinated, cooked and queued based on when a delivery driver will arrive to pick up the food.
As such, we are starting to see robots creep into ghost kitchen operations. In February of this year, DoorDash acquired food robot company, Chowbotics. At the time of the acquisition, we wrote that DoorDash could use Chowbotics’ robots to assemble its own brand of fresh food for delivery from the DashMart convenience stores. This prediction seems to have borne out as earlier this month, HNGRY reported that DoorDash was indeed creating its own line of private label salad bowls and microwaveable meals with Chowbotics tech.
If DoorDash can make a go of its new robotics program, it’s probably safe to assume that other delivery services will follow suit. Gopuff, for instance, is adding ghost kitchens to its delivery network and has reportedly raised an additional billion dollars. That could buy a few Beastros, for sure.
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