Articles tagged with "restaurant-technology"
Armstrong Robotics wants to create general purpose kitchen robots, starting with dishwashing - The Robot Report
Armstrong Robotics, a San Francisco-based startup, is developing general-purpose kitchen robots with an initial focus on automating dishwashing in restaurants. Co-founder and CEO Axel Hansen highlights dishwashing as a universally disliked and labor-intensive task that restaurants struggle to staff, making it an ideal candidate for robotic automation. Unlike simpler kitchen tasks such as frying or flipping burgers, which offer limited value for automation investment, dishwashing involves significant workload and cost, especially in full-service restaurants. Armstrong’s system employs three off-the-shelf robot arms equipped with specialized grippers, and after five years of R&D, the company is now operating its dishwashing robots in multiple restaurants around the clock, autonomously cleaning thousands of dishes. A major technical challenge Armstrong faced was the perception problem—accurately detecting and locating dirty dishes made of various materials like glass and shiny metal, often covered with grease or liquids. To address this, the robot uses 30 sensors and a neural network trained on millions of dish images to achieve millimeter
roboticskitchen-robotsdishwashing-robotartificial-intelligenceautomationrestaurant-technologyrobotic-perceptionXRobotics’ countertop robots are cooking up 25,000 pizzas a month
XRobotics, a San Francisco-based startup, has developed the xPizza Cube, a compact countertop robot designed to automate key pizza-making tasks such as applying sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. The machine, roughly the size of a stackable washing machine, can produce up to 100 pizzas per hour and is adaptable to various pizza styles, including Detroit and Chicago deep dish. Leasing at $1,300 per month over three years, the robot aims to save pizza makers 70-80% of the labor time involved in repetitive tasks, helping both small pizzerias and large chains improve efficiency without requiring a full overhaul of their kitchen processes. Unlike previous ventures like Zume, which attempted to fully automate pizza production and ultimately failed, XRobotics focuses on assistive technology that integrates into existing kitchens. After initial challenges with a larger, more complex robot, the company pivoted to a smaller, more affordable model launched in 2023, which has since produced 25,000 pizzas monthly. The startup recently raised $2.5 million in seed funding to scale production and expand its customer base. With plans to enter the Mexican and Canadian markets, XRobotics remains committed to the pizza industry, leveraging the large market size and the founders’ personal passion for pizza.
roboticsautomationfood-technologymachine-learningrestaurant-technologypizza-makingkitchen-roboticsBurgerBots opens restaurant with ABB robots preparing fast food
BurgerBotsABB-Roboticsfast-foodautomationroboticsrestaurant-technologycobots