A robot chef named Flippy, designed to cook 300 burgers a day, has been upgraded and can now also fill up baskets of fries and place them in the deep fat fryer.
Built by Miso Robotics, a food services startup from Pasadena, California, it is now capable of working an entire fry station and can do twice as many food preparation jobs as the first Flippy, including basket filling, emptying, and returning.
White Castle has partnered with Miso on the Flippy project, giving feedback that has allowed the startup to improve the functionality of the product.
They deployed the original Flippy to a location in the Chicagoland area in September 2020. and plans to expand to additional locations once the pilot is over.
A robot chef named Flippy, designed to cook 300 burgers a day, has been upgraded and can now also fill up baskets of fries and place them in the deep fat fryer
Built by Miso Robotics, a food services startup from Pasadena, California, it is now capable of working an entire fry station and can do twice as many food preparation jobs as the first Flippy, including basket filling, emptying, and returning
Back-of-house positions at quick-service restaurants have historically been labour-intensive, physically demanding and can be hazardous given the proximity to hot oil and grills in compact kitchens, which prompted Miso to find a safer alternative.
Flippy 2 is the second iteration of their solution, and is designed to maximise the efficiency of the kitchen, while working alongside human coworkers.
White Castle says it was ‘impressed and pleased’ by the productivity gains from having Flippy in the kitchen, as it helped team members stay in their designated locations, reducing the need to jump into another area.
However, employees noted during the pilot that there was a need for human assistance on both sides of the robot – from the initial point of contact with the uncooked product to when the cooked food gets placed in the holding area.
This meant that one or two employees were required at several steps.
Basket management wasn’t automated so the cooking process wasn’t as seamless as it could be, which is what prompted changes in Flippy 2.
‘We learned so much from Flippy and our partnership with Miso Robotics. It’s amazing to see the future of how we provide even better service and even more hot and tasty food to our craving customers happening right before us in real time,’ said Jamie Richardson, Vice President at White Castle.
Flippy 2 doesn’t remove the need for humans, it just makes the fry station, even at peak times, less than a full-time task, allowing staff to focus on other tasks, the firm explained.
White Castle has partnered with Miso on the Flippy project, giving feedback that has allowed the startup to improve the functionality of the product
Among the new features on Flippy 2 are a brand new AutoBin™ system for lower volume and speciality foods like onion rings or chicken tenders.
Each bin can hold as much as a full fry basket, be customised for a kitchen’s specific needs and be delineated for individual products like vegetables and fish to prevent cross-contamination.
Once the product is placed in the bin, artificial intelligence kicks in, to automatically identify the foods, cook it in the correct basket and place it in a holding area.
This reduces the amount of overall human-to-food contact, according to Miso, and reduces potential oil dripping and burns by lifting moving baskets.
Flippy 2 can operate alone without human intervention in the middle of the process.
Among the new features on Flippy 2 are a brand new AutoBin™ system for lower volume and speciality foods like onion rings or chicken tenders
Each bin can hold as much as a full fry basket, be customised for a kitchen’s specific needs and be delineated for individual products like vegetables and fish to prevent cross-contamination
‘This makes the system faster, increasing throughput by 30% – or around 60 baskets per hour – which is more than what is needed in high-volume restaurants.’
‘Like all technologies, Flippy 2 has evolved significantly from its predecessor, and we are extremely grateful for the insights collected from White Castle to truly push its development forward in a real restaurant environment,’ said Mike Bell, CEO of Miso Robotics.
‘Flippy 2 takes up less space in the kitchen and increases production exponentially with its new basket filling, emptying and returning capabilities.
‘Since Flippy’s inception, our goal has always been to provide a customisable solution that can function harmoniously with any kitchen and without disruption.
‘Flippy 2 has more than 120 configurations built into its technology and is the only robotic fry station currently being produced at scale.’
In addition to White Castle, Miso Robotics has several other pilot agreements with leading national brands in place, including its recently announced partnership with Inspire Brands.
