Fried foods like French fries and onion rings are going high-tech thanks to a Southern California company.
Miso Robotics Inc. has released its Flippy 2 robot. The robot automates the process of frying foods like potatoes and onions.
The robot uses a large robotic arm like those used in car factories. It is directed by cameras and artificial intelligence. He takes frozen fries and other foods out of the freezer, puts them in hot oil, then places them ready to serve in a container.
Flippy 2 can cook multiple meals with different cooking processes at the same time. Miso says this reduces the need for employees and speeds up the time people have to get their food from the drive-thru counters.
Miso general manager Mike Bell said that when an order comes through the restaurant’s system, it automatically tells Flippy what to do.
Bell added: “He does it faster or more preciselymore reliably and happier than most humans do.
Miso said it took five years to develop Flippy. And he recently made the robot available to companies.
The robot’s name comes from an ancient robot named Flippy. Flippy was designed to flip fast food burgers. But once Miso’s team finished this machine, they saw that there was a greater need at the fry station, especially late at night.
Bell said people do to remark Flippy 2 — but only at the beginning.
He said that when they place a robot in a place, shoppers who come to order, “they all take pictures, they take videos, they ask a band questions and the second time they walk in, they don’t even seem to notice.
Miso engineers can watch Flippy 2 robots work in real time on a screen. This allows them to deal with any problems that arise. Several restaurants Chains have started using the frying robot. Bell said they include Jack in the Box in San Diego, Calif., White Castle in the Midwest and CaliBurger on the West Coast.
Bell said three other major US fast food chains put Flippy to work. But he said they weren’t sure about advertising because some people might have opinions about robots taking jobs away from humans.
Bell said the jobs humans are happiest offloading are jobs like the fry station. He added that workers are happy to have help so they can do other things.
Miso Robotics has approximately 90 engineers. They work on new technologies or work on computer language. One of the company’s next projects is Sippy. Sippy is a drink-making robot that will take an order from a shopper and make drinks, including making things like the lid and the straw.
Bell said that in the future, people will “walk into a restaurant and look at a robot and say, ‘Hey, remember the good old days when humans did this stuff?
“And on those days…it happens….It’s just a matter of…how fast.”
I am Gregory Stachel.
Reuters staff reported this story. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English.
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words in this story
automate– v. run or operate (something, such as a plant or system) using machines or computers instead of people to do the work
artificial intelligence – nm a field of computer science that involves giving machines the ability to appear to have human intelligence
exact – adj.. free from errors or mistakes
reliable – adj.. being able to be trusted to do or provide what is needed
to remark – v. to become aware of (something or someone) by seeing or hearing
band – nm a large quantity
chain – nm a group of businesses (such as stores, restaurants, or hotels) that have the same name and basic appearance and sell the same products or services
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