Robot Burger Flipper Could Revolutionize Fast Food
Don’t you just hate it when you get through the drive-thru and pull out your burger, only to find all the pickles on stacked on one side, ketchup leaking out the other side and a ton of onions when you asked for none? Most people have experienced this, or a similar scenario, when ordering fast food. Employees making minimum wage under high stress to keep up with lunch- and dinnertime-rushes can only be expected to do so much. Now, the San Francisco-based robotics startup Momentum Machines plans to eliminate quality issues in the fast food industry with an automated burger machine.
In what it calls the world’s first “smart restaurant” chain, all cooking will be conducted by robots.
Our alpha machine replaces all of the hamburger line cooks in a restaurant,” the company boasts on its Web site. “It does everything employees can do except better.”
Image via Momentum Machines
The Momentum Machines will not only churn out 360 burgers per hour, but it will also form and cook patties—something McDonald’s workers haven’t done in years—slice toppings to order, assemble burgers and bag them. Plus, the machines will even create custom patties, grinding meat to order in whatever combination the diner requests.
“Want a patty with 1/3 pork and 2/3 bison ground after you place your order? No problem,” the company claims on its Web site.
Tired of no seating during the lunch-hour rush? Momentum Machines solves that issue, as well. The robots only take up 24 square feet of space, allowing additional room in each restaurant for seating. More customers further increases the profitability for restaurants, which can then invest in higher quality ingredients and gourmet cooking techniques.
Momentum Machines plans to start with its own restaurant chain, which should pay for itself in less than one year. Then, it plans to expand to equipment sales so its machinery can be used by other restaurants, convenience stores, food trucks and vending machines.
The domain expertise of our team and the devices that we will build in the near future are going to allow restaurants to offer patrons a dramatically better experience,” the company says.
