Meet Flippy, World’s First Fast-Food Robotic Chef

The next time you’ll be craving for a Caliburger dish, be prepared to have your meal cooked by a robot. John Miller, the company’s CEO, announced that Flippy, a $100,000 robot, will be employed to help the staff prepare the restaurant’s signature dishes.

Flippy Is an Impressive Piece of Equipment

Although Flippy’s main task is to flip those succulent burgers all day long, Miller declared that the robot is more than meets the eye. Designed and manufactured in collaboration with Miso robotics, Flippy is equipped with artificial intelligence which helps it learn, relearn, and improve.

The robot is also equipped with a 3D camera that helps him better understand and navigate the environment. However, at the moment, Flippy is still trying to get the hang of its job.

Miller declared that Flippy stepping into the kitchen is not a whim, but a necessity. The job Flippy was trained and programmed to do is one of the least paid and dirty ones in a fast-food restaurant, as Miller described it.

And since the job doesn’t pay much, hundreds of candidates resigned after just a few days spent in the kitchen, flipping burgers. But, as times are a changing, the robot is more than happy to cover himself in grease and flip them burgers from dusk till dawn.

At the moment, the robotic fast-food chef is capable of flipping 150 burgers per hour. Sadly, the robot still has much to learn and will, for the time being, stick to flipping burgers, making sure they’re cooked right.

Flippy will be supervised by a human handler whose job is to pass the burger patties and to add the rest of the ingredients. The robot will also be able to tell if the burgers are thoroughly cooked by analyzing the temperature with its built-in sensors.

Image source: Wikipedia