Autonomous robot chef moves into the kitchen, powered by AI

As COVID-19 assails the country, one of the industries immediately affected is restaurants. Initially, food service establishments closed their doors, offering service reduced to drive-thru, curbside, and delivery. Keeping foods and surfaces free from the virus was imperative. At the same time, restaurants were and are struggling with staying open and retaining employees.

“What COVID-19 did was highlight two pressing problems that restaurants already had before the virus struck,” said Dr. Ryan Sinnet, CTO of Miso Robotics, which provides robotic kitchen solutions to restaurants. “The first challenge was obtaining and retaining labor, since the food service workforce, even before COVID-19, was not growing. The second challenge was very narrow profit margins. There already were downward pressures on food prices at the same time that restaurant real estate, labor, and food costs were all going up.”

Although automating burger frying was an initial project, Miso’s ultimate goal is to develop a line of products that can address a series of restaurant applications, and that could work alongside employees on cooking lines.

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