Your Maccas jobs are safe and sound folks, because as it turns out robots are not going to steal our jobs any time soon. Well, burger flipping jobs anyway. Flippy, the sort of cute robot rose to fame this past week when it was installed in a Cali Burger chain store in Pasadena. The humans had high hopes the robot would help make things a lil’ easier but unfortunately, Flippy just couldn’t keep up with the demand. And sadly the burger-making robot had to be be returned to Dexter’s laboratory after just one day.
Not really, there’s just an out-of-order sign on the robot for now.
Naturally people are making the same joke about it while humans are still on top.
Is Flippy a flop? https://t.co/5OgQps5lLH
— Steve Grzanich (@SteveGrzanich) March 9, 2018
Even Louis Theroux got involved.
Robot takeover postponed. #flippy https://t.co/a0RL4YCAFT
— Louis Theroux (@louistheroux) March 9, 2018
But as it turns out, Flippy wasn’t exactly ‘too slow’. There were just too many excited humans flocking the store that day in a chance to see the shiny robot. In reality the ‘kitchen assistant’ can actually flip between 150-300 burgers each hour which is pretty impressive.
So how does it work?
Flippy is the work of Miso Robotics, a company aiming to revolutionise the commercial kitchen and improve working conditions. When it comes to Flippy, they use 3D, thermal and regular vision to detect the moment raw burger patties are placed onto the grill. Flippy will then monitor the burger in real-time and will also display the cooking time on a screen. The screen is there to alert staff members to add cheese or dressing. This technology also allows Flippy to change spatulas between cooked and raw meat.
In an official statement Miso Robotics’ co-founder and CEO David Zito said,
“Our mission is to improve working conditions of chefs and line cooks with assistants, not replace them. Anyone who’s ever worked in a restaurant knows how hard the work is and the value of extra hands and that’s exactly what we built.”
Hopefully, Flippy will be up and at ’em soon.
You can learn more about Flippy in the video below.
