Flippy the Robot Kitchen Assistant

Flippy is a fully automated “robot kitchen assistant” which is able to fry cook and flip hamburgers with ease. A number of different companies are already testing the product, which was developed last year by Miso Robotics. Flippy is specifically designed to work well with humans in a kitchen environment, it works using a robotic arm attached to a cart on wheels, switching between different tools to work both the fryer or the grill. It can monitor the state and readiness of the food as it is connected to an artificial intelligence system, laser sensors capable of 3D and thermal scanners.

Walmart Tests Flippy The Robot Kitchen Assistant

Walmart is currently testing Flippy in some of its delis. Despite the claimed effectiveness of Flippy’s abilities, it has also been stated that Flippy is not capable of running a kitchen on his own. David Zito CEO of Miso Robotics said this “Our whole thing is not about job replacement, right, what we want to do is assist the hardworking linemen cooks and chefs in America with tools to give them the ability to faithfully reproduce while taking the burden off some of these more repetitive and mundane tasks”. The tasks that Flippy would likely be in charge of would be frying frozen food products and making sure it is properly cooked. Then a human employee would handle the product and ensure that it got to a customer. This means there is a good chance that customers would very rarely even see Flippy in the kitchen.

Quite surprisingly, this isn’t Flippy’s first job! Flippy had previously worked at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, working as a frying assistant. It quite effectively fried chicken and tater tots for thousands of fans, while working nicely alongside human employees. A key factor is that Flippy did not replace or dislodge a single employee. “The robot kitchen assistant helps us to more quickly and safely cook perfectly crispy chicken tenders and tater tots. It’s amazing to see the robot kitchen assistant and team members working together, and the consistency of the product is incredible!” stated Robin Rosenberg, Vice President and Chef de Cuisine for the hospitality company Levi.

Even further back in Flippy’s life than the Dodger Stadium job, he was working as a grill cook for Caliburger in Pasadena. In fact, you can still go see Flippy in action from 11 AM to 7 PM every day at the Caliburger, and additionally, you are able to taste if his burgers are up to standards. Tony Lemelino, Chief technology officer at Caliburger said: “We have demonstrated that Flippy can work on our standard equipment and meet high volume demand with substantially greater cooking consistency than our kitchens that have not yet installed Flippy”.

In conclusion, there is a fairly high chance that you’ll be seeing Flippy in more and more restaurants in the not too distant future,  the question is will this improve the quality of burgers around the world, or not?