“Flippy,” the Fast Food Robot, Turned Off for Being Too Slow

[Megalith]

Despite its potential for churning out 150 burgers per hour, Flippy couldn’t keep up with demand on its first day at Cali Burger: word quickly spread about the robot, resulting in a flood of customers. The company is putting some of the blame on its employees, who reportedly failed to prepare the patties and toppings quick enough.

The robot, or more specifically, a specialized industrial six-axis robotic arm bolted to the kitchen floor, was supposed to work lunchtime shifts at the international burger chain. The robot is designed to take burger orders through a digital ticketing system, then flips the burger patties and removes them from the grill.

 

[maxius]

nope automation may one day be more ambidextrous than humans but today is not that day. the real question is what were the sanitary protocols for this food service robot? do we want an unsanitary robot making our foodage?

on the whole automation going to replace jobs. when i encountered one of McDonalds restaurants with a self order kiosk. said ok cool went to the counter got my food during my visit it was funny to see a line behind a kiosk. it was much easier and faster to get my order and food from the actual humans behind the counter than spend precious minutes tapping on a screen.

 

[toast0]

This is stunt automation; effective automation usually does tasks in a different way, for example conveyor cooking with something like this, like they've been using at Carl's Jr for probably decades now (Hardee's east of the Mississippi).

 

[rive22]

damn those burgers are skinny

 

[sfsuphysics]

damn those burgers are skinny

No worries about cooking time then to make sure you get your sterilized hockey puck.

A place that needs to serve 150 burgers an hour is NOT a place I want to put much faith in the quality of the meat to leave it pink inside.

 

[rive22]

No worries about cooking time then to make sure you get your sterilized hockey puck.

A place that needs to serve 150 burgers an hour is NOT a place I want to put much faith in the quality of the meat to leave it pink inside.

that's a good point

 

[bos]

150 burgers an hour, is really pretty slow. With a grill that size a human could easily do WAY more.

 

[AaronGant]

Right now it's all testbed installs, work out the bugs then just add more. So the robot needs a 2nd arm, got it, next iteration. Line at ordering kiosk, ok just add 6 more, now everyone is ordering at the same time.

 

[maxius]

A Robots ruggedness, fool proof sensors, repairability, cost, speed, sanitation protocols, back end infrastructure, and security protocols vs humans. humans always win.

Also who the hell is going to maintain it, fix it when it breaks, update its software when a security flaw is found and clean it properly?

it is way easier to grab teenager looking for a job than deal with all that crap.

 

[Weenis]

A Robots ruggedness, fool proof sensors, repairability, cost, speed, sanitation protocols, back end infrastructure, and security protocols vs humans. humans always win.

Also who the hell is going to maintain it, fix it when it breaks, update its software when a security flaw is found and clean it properly?

it is way easier to grab teenager looking for a job than deal with all that crap.

If what you were saying were true, we wouldn't so heavily use automation in the auto industry. It's simply a matter of someone building a system that works effectively and efficiently. It's definitely doable, someone just has to make the leap first.

 

[Sonicks]

Talk about over-engineering.

I get that it would be easy to retrofit any kitchen with a bot like this but I don't see why they don't just make a machine, not a robot, that is like a conveyor flat top that flips the burgers by rolling them off one conveyor another conveyor below. Sort of like those pizza ovens where an uncooked pizza goes in on one side and a done pizza pops out of the other. Temperature sensing the doneness of the patty can't possibly be that hard these days...

 

[Arcygenical]

No worries about cooking time then to make sure you get your sterilized hockey puck.

A place that needs to serve 150 burgers an hour is NOT a place I want to put much faith in the quality of the meat to leave it pink inside.

Blegh, I hate medium rare or medium burgers. 165'f please. I hate the mouthfeel of raw fat.

Which is entirely opposite to how I eat steaks(MRare, or blue depending on fat/fascia content) and how much I love tartare which is super lean.

 

[viscountalpha]

I feel automation is a recipe for disaster. Machines should help us do our jobs better, more efficiently and with less stress. A robot in watched and un monitored is a robot waiting to fuck up in a huge manner.

 

[heatlesssun]

He drives around, all over the town...

 

[Ultima99]

A Robots ruggedness, fool proof sensors, repairability, cost, speed, sanitation protocols, back end infrastructure, and security protocols vs humans. humans always win.

Also who the hell is going to maintain it, fix it when it breaks, update its software when a security flaw is found and clean it properly?

it is way easier to grab teenager looking for a job than deal with all that crap.

For now yes, but this will change dramatically before too much longer. Most cashiers and kitchen employees will be replaced eventually.

 

[capt_cope]

A Robots ruggedness, fool proof sensors, repairability, cost, speed, sanitation protocols, back end infrastructure, and security protocols vs humans. humans always win.

Also who the hell is going to maintain it, fix it when it breaks, update its software when a security flaw is found and clean it properly?

it is way easier to grab teenager looking for a job than deal with all that crap.

Until the "teenagers" (more than half the fast food employees I see are my age or older) manage to force some stupid "livable wage" laws, then it'll be much cheaper to use robots. Not to mention maintenance cycles are a known cost that can be scheduled and planned for, and robots don't quit, steal, or stick their dicks in the mayo.

 

[Azphira]

It's replacing the $7.25 an hour burger flipper, with a $7.25 an hour ingredient loader and an $18.55 an hour robotics tech.

 

[nutzo]

150 burgers an hour, is really pretty slow. With a grill that size a human could easily do WAY more.

Doesn't seem any faster than when I worked at Carl's Jr. 30+ years ago, or like it would save that much labor.
They had a metal belt that you put the burgers on, they slowly went through the flame broiler, and then they came out the other side and they dropped on the warming tray.
The buns where toasted on a lower belt.
The cooks then assembled the burgers.

Back then 2 decent cooks" could easily put out 300 hamburgers an hour. 4 cooks could almost double that number with the setup in the busier stores.
When you are making 6 to 8 at a time (multiple orders), it amazing how fast you can turn them out.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Blegh, I hate medium rare or medium burgers. 165'f please. I hate the mouthfeel of raw fat.

Which is entirely opposite to how I eat steaks(MRare, or blue depending on fat/fascia content) and how much I love tartare which is super lean.

True, I usually like my burger cooked much more well than a steak simply due to the unknown factor of what went into the ground chuck. Plus if a restaurant usually has food that is THAT good, a burger is not high on my list of things to consume from there.

 

[pendragon1]

Doesn't seem any faster than when I worked at Carl's Jr. 30+ years ago, or like it would save that much labor.
They had a metal belt that you put the burgers on, they slowly went through the flame broiler, and then they came out the other side and they dropped on the warming tray.
The buns where toasted on a lower belt.
The cooks then assembled the burgers.

Back then 2 decent cooks" could easily put out 300 hamburgers an hour. 4 cooks could almost double that number with the setup in the busier stores.
When you are making 6 to 8 at a time (multiple orders), it amazing how fast you can turn them out.

yup. my littlest sister who works at McDs laughed at 150 an hour.

 

[Chunder]

It's replacing the $7.25 an hour burger flipper, with a $7.25 an hour ingredient loader and an $18.55 an hour robotics tech.

It's interesting that they're doing this in America. Meanwhile, in Europe. http://www.businessinsider.com/denmark-mcdonalds-pays-20-hourly-wages-2014-10 "burger flippers" get paid at a minimum, $20 USD an hr. Additional cost for a Big Mac for nearly 2.8x the pay? $0.80, even with the far stricter food/chemical regulations of the EU. Workers also get universal healthcare, universal education, universal childcare, paid sick leave, paid vacation time, paid family leave. Which, in the end, makes cost of living overall far cheaper there than it is in the US when citizens need to pay for all of that out of their own pockets.

 

[Krenum]

yup. my littlest sister who works at McDs laughed at 150 an hour.

On top of the fact that all they're meat is frozen, don't they use a press griddle at McDonalds?

 

[Gabriel2]

yuck! meat

 

[pendragon1]

On top of the fact that all they're meat is frozen, don't they use a press griddle at McDonalds?

idk i dont work there. she just said that's nothing, they do more on a slow night.

 

[nutzo]

yuck! meat

You're assuming that it is real meat


If we weren't supposed to eat cows, god wouldn't have made them taste so good

 

[ZiggyDeath]

A Robots ruggedness, fool proof sensors, repairability, cost, speed, sanitation protocols, back end infrastructure, and security protocols vs humans. humans always win.

Also who the hell is going to maintain it, fix it when it breaks, update its software when a security flaw is found and clean it properly?

it is way easier to grab teenager looking for a job than deal with all that crap.

As a person who worked for years repairing CNC machinery, I'm going to have to disagree with many of your assertions, or say that your assertions are unfair or irrelevant.

 

[Chaos Machine]

Blegh, I hate medium rare or medium burgers. 165'f please. I hate the mouthfeel of raw fat.

Which is entirely opposite to how I eat steaks(MRare, or blue depending on fat/fascia content) and how much I love tartare which is super lean.

Also, rare or medium rare is a great way to make yourself sick, hamburger is not like steak where it is relatively sterile inside the cut so not cooking it through is rolling the dice.

 

[DustMite]

It seems to make more sense, to me anyway, to cook the burgers on a moving conveyor system as was mentioned previously. The whole robot arm thing seems like more of a publicity stunt and is just some way to keep humans involved in the process. I think if a fast food joint is going to automate, then it would be better to remove as much of the human element as possible.

As was mentioned, what's going to happen when the human calls in sick, or takes a day off work. Who will place the meat patties on the grill for the robot arm?

How about having a machine deposit the meat patties on the grill, sort of like the pin resetter at a bowling alley. Then it switches heads and deposits the cheese on the meat patties that require it.

Then load the cooked meat patties on the bottom bun that goes down a conveyor to load up the rest of the toppings and condiments then wraps the burger at the end.

Well, that's what comes to mind when I think of automation. Not the publicity stunt with that robotic arm.

 

[Nobu]

As a person who worked for years repairing CNC machinery, I'm going to have to disagree with many of your assertions, or say that your assertions are unfair or irrelevant.

Just hope that if they do start using these, that they also install grease shields, or you'll be repairing a sticky, greasy mess. I mean, it'd be one thing if it were just lubricant grease, but food grease is some nasty shit.

 

[Jagger100]

This is stunt automation; effective automation usually does tasks in a different way, for example conveyor cooking with something like this, like they've been using at Carl's Jr for probably decades now (Hardee's east of the Mississippi).

This looks good to owners/investors. Real automation doesn't explicity look like a box that stands where the employee stood. But many people with big dollars don't know this.

 

[NeghVar]

No insurance benefits, works open to close, no wages, no griping, no PTO, no worker's comp. Just upfront capital plus service when needed. It will require a lot of research to determine if the cons outweigh the pros.

 

[ZiggyDeath]

Just hope that if they do start using these, that they also install grease shields, or you'll be repairing a sticky, greasy mess. I mean, it'd be one thing if it were just lubricant grease, but food grease is some nasty shit.

You know what's also pretty nasty? All those bloody metal chips stuck in decade old dried lubricant.

In any case, I got out of repairing CNC machinery, since most of the major manufacturers have started firmware locking or parts locking the electronic control boards.

 

[c3k]

Bah. Back in the day, I'd do a 12-12 flip. Every 2 minutes, 12 more burgers up. Keep that up for an hour or more. Yeah. John Henry won, didn't he?

 

[Nobu]

You know what's also pretty nasty? All those bloody metal chips stuck in decade old dried lubricant.

In any case, I got out of repairing CNC machinery, since most of the major manufacturers have started firmware locking or parts locking the electronic control boards.

Oh yeah, between hydraulic fluid and coolanol, I've had my fair share.

 

[Mong00se]

You're assuming that it is real meat


If we weren't supposed to eat cows, god wouldn't have made them taste so good

God didn't make them taste so good, man did.