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Robots are taking jobs flipping burgers and making smoothies as automation invades fast food — see how they work
bySam-
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Miso Robotics
More fast food chains than ever are testing robots and AI to cut costs.
Advanced technology can be used to decrease the number of workers needed for food preparation and service.
Robots are being used to take orders, prepare food, and even deliver it to customers.
Some fast food and fast casual chains are integrating robots into their prep lines.
A worker in a Chicago,Illinois McDonalds restaurant prepares a large order of the firm's famous french fries.
Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis/Getty Images
A worker shortage and rising labor price are making hiring and retaining workers more expensive, so robots are a way to cut costs. Some are still in the works, while others are already serving food.
Bloomberg/Inside Chipotle documentary
White Castle has a robot cook, Flippy, from Miso Robotics.
Flippy.
The original model could place baskets in the fryer, shake baskets in oil, and monitor for appropriate cooking time to make chicken tenders and tater tots.
Flippy.
Miso Robotics
Flippy works by moving back and forth in the kitchen while attached to an overhead rail.
The entire Flippy system.
Miso Robotics
Flippy can take over some of the more dangerous kitchen tasks, like deep frying, behind a safety shield to protect staff from hot oil.
Flippy handles several fryers at once.
Miso Robotics
Flippy manages the fryer station, allowing back-of-house fast-food workers to focus on other tasks.
Flippy.
Miso Robotics
Flippy uses AI to identify the food in the bin, pick it up, distribute it in the fryer, and move into the holding area after cooking.
Flippy's fryers.
Miso Robotics
Miso also released Flippy Wings, which makes chicken wings using the same process.
Flippy transferring wings.
Miso Robotics
Buffalo Wild Wings has also tested Flippy Wings.
Flippy Wings
Miso Robotics
Miso's most recent robot is CookRight Coffee, being tested at Panera right now.
Miso Robotics
The system uses artificial intelligence to monitor coffee volume and temperature, so workers don't manually have to check those levels.
Miso Robotics
The AI technology allows Panera employees to brew a new pot of coffee at precisely the right time.
Miso Robotics
"We are thrilled that Panera shares in our vision to revamp the coffee monitoring process, and can't wait for CookRight Coffee to be installed at their restaurants to help customers and team members alike," Miso CEO Mike Bell said in a statement.
Miso Robotics
Chipotle is testing Chippy, an AI kitchen assistant that will help make its tortilla chips, in its California test kitchen.
Chipotle specifically programmed Chippy to have some inconsistency in results on purpose to mimic the technique of the humans who currently produce the chain's chips.
Chipotle
Robots are coming to the pizza side of the industry, too. Food tech company Picnic is selling a robot that can make up to 100 pizzas per hour.
So far, Picnic has been deployed at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and Texas A&M University, and businesses can subscribe to the technology for around $2500 per month as of 2022.
Picnic
Jamba worked with smoothie-making robot Blendid to create a robotic smoothie kiosk.
Blendid and Jamba's new robot smoothie maker kiosk.
Blended makes smoothies using a robotic arm, blenders, and ingredient dispensers.
Blendid and Jamba's new robot smoothie maker kiosk.
Blendid
The system does all the tasks a human worker would typically do, from measuring out the correct ingredients to processing payments.
A person picking up a Blendid and Jamba smoothie.
Blendid
When they're not in the kitchen, robots are also giving fast-food chains another way to reach customers through delivery.
Nuro
Last year, Domino's announced a test with Nuro's autonomous, self-driving robots to deliver pizzas in Houston.
Customers at three California locations had the option to select Kiwibot at checkout for short deliveries.
Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
Restaurants are an $800 billion industry with high turnover compared to other areas of the workforce, so there's potential for continued growth in automation, from delivery to frying foods and taking orders.
