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Robotic Short Order Cook 196

Posted by emmett from the cheeseburger-cheeseburger-cheeseburger dept.
MAXOMENOS writes "I found this in the Chicago Tribune: A robotic short-order cook. So far it makes burgers and pancakes to order, as long as you want them only one way." At least it's more useful than Twiki.
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Robotic Short Order Cook More

Robotic Short Order Cook

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  • It's not like high school kids are useful anyway. I know that my friends and I weren't.

    Though, here is an interesting thought: Why not replace the high school kids with robots? Not just in the job market, but everywhere. Schools, homes, parties and the whole nine yards. Parents and teachers would be happier, the crime rate would go down and no need for the police to enforce a cerfew. When mom asks her son to take out the trash a perfectly pleseant vox voiced child would happily and obediently fullfil it's task.

    Let's make the world a better place! No children and MORE Bandwidth!!!
  • IF you read the article it is not about the technology of being able to flip burgers (they actually say in the article that it was adapted from the same technology that they use in the auto industry) it is about the fact that robotics is begining to be used in fields outside the traditional realms of robotics. This may or may not be great but the point is it is happening and it is interesting to see this technology expanding in its applications.
  • Man, I'm glad machines aren't sentient yet... that robot was demoted from computer assembly at IBM to flipping hamburgers. It'd be the first recorded case of robotic depression/job burnout.
  • You're talking about a different point, then.

    If the economics of robot fry cooks were really that good, there would be a world full of robot fry cooks. In some cities, McD's and Starbucks are already offering three and four times minimum wage, and still can't find workers.

    I wouldn't doubt that in labor-tight markets, robotic chefs will become more common, but the employers will be doing it because labor has become scarce, not to be "saving quite a bit of money," which was your original point.

  • They also did research burger flipping robots. Or so I have read.
  • McDonalds announced it was going with kitchen robots in 1998 [caller.com], and took a $125 million charge against earnings to finance it. But other than the original press release and some 1998 commentary, that whole project seems to have disappeared. Anyone know what happened?

    The current leader in restaurant automation is probably Yo! Sushi [yosushi.co.uk] in the UK, which has sushi-making robots and autonomous robot vehicles in the restaurants.

  • Imagine it - you could go to the drive-thru window and your order would be right every time!


    That depends on who writes the software.
    I could see the usefulness of a backdoor into this system!

    Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... Delicious hacking.



  • Everything is becoming more automated. By your logic, we should see ten times more people out of work today compared with the beginning of the 20th century. It doesn't happen, because people find things to do, and the economy picks up the slack

    Umm, yes, unemployment is down, but the problem is not really robots replacing people, but rather removing the human element from a job and making humans do robotic things: *beep* *beep*: take the fries out of the vat. *beeeeep* *beeeeep*: the next batch of biscuits are done. *beep-beep-beep* : someone's at the drivethru window. And so on.

    The employer for this job is getting the same work done for less money, and he can pass these savings on to his customers. Lower prices means higher profits, and his customers are happier too. Even if he keeps prices the same, he gets more money, which he then turns around and spends. Wages go up. Prices go down. Neat things happen.

    The "employer" in this case is a manager who gets paid about two dollars more an hour. And he/she doesn't get the benefits of profits--the stockholders do. Do the stockholders care what pimply teenager is answering the call of the fry vat? Do they care if some kid got fired because he didn't clean the grease off of the robot burger-flipper? No. That's because the stockholders are only there for short periods of time until it gets traded off. They don't care as long as their portfolio increases. The business of the entire company is focused on increasing stock gains.

    "Wages go up" yeah, right. If you've ever known anyone who's worked at McDonalds you'll know that's a myth. Wages go up 25 cents after the first 6 months. Work there another 10 years and you might see $1.50 more an hour. Don't be fooled by that idiotic commercial where they show McDonalds employees and flash subtitles: "Future NASA scientist". That's utter bullshit. A lot of fast-food joints in small-assed towns are the only real jobs available, since the closing of the local plant or mine or whatever.

    Currently, we're experiencing the longest period of consistent growth, lack of unemployment, and lack of inflation in history. (This is in the US; the rest of the world seems to be doing not as well in some places, but it's still very, very good compared to history.) Why do you think this is?

    I'll tell you why: Low unemplyment is a meaningless statistic. Everyone may have jobs, but that's because they can't afford not to, and 2 or 3 jobs at that. All these part time jobs don't add up to any kind of medical coverage at all, and you're working your ass off 50-75 hours a week.Lack of inflation: the Fed controls the inflation rate--this isn't an economic indicator--if anything, it means that the economy is overvalued and wages haven't caught up with the price of goods. Consistent growth: Growth is measured by the size of the richest people's wallets, because the other 80% of the population's income only adds up to 20% of the GDP so what happens to them doesn't matter much. It's a negative-sum game out there: for a few to win, many have to lose, and a lot at that. The only reason the economy survives is the ability of the economy to "create" (dig it up, mass produce it in sweatshops, make it up) valuable goods faster than they are consumed, devalued, or faster than the interest builds up.

    It is my opinion that our current way of doing things is not sustainable and sooner or later things are going to come crashing down as capitalism burns up all the fuel on the planet.

  • No, but it can spam you....
  • You want it medium rare, huh? Well you can just bite my shiney metal ass. Benders a robot and he's been the ships cook for awhile now, I don't see how this is new. If he says do you want fry with that, say NO!
  • That is one of our family's favorite movies. I love that flick.
    --
  • The amount of observaition, deduction, and problem-solving required in a typical McDonald's could probably be taken care of by one or two people. A robot that knows how to handle any situation may be a ways off, but one that can tell when things aren't going as planned and call for help isn't. I'm not implying that we could automate everything, but we could certainly cut out a great proportion of the people.

    - Michael Cohn
  • Perhaps this is intended only as a proof-of-concept, but a spatula-wielding arm is an extremely overcomplicated way of producing hamburgers and pancakes. Much cheaper (but admittedly less impressive) custom 'hamburger' or 'pancake' machines could accomplish the same work at several orders of magnitude less cost.

    I agree, I think that this is mainly a "for show" example; it is not really practical in a cost efficient manor. Burger kind of example has some type of griller. It's a large open oven/open flame grill with a conveyer belt. Raw burger meat goes in one end "home style grilled burgers come out the other".

    But I don't thing a custom machine could make a whole "meal". For instance to satisfy the requirements for a happy meal one must grill the hamburger, lay on the lettuce, tomato, onions, prepare the buns and of course special sauce. The minimum wage robot needs to all this, and of course serve it with a smile.

    Another impracticality of this prototype is that while McDonalds has their standards and methods for preparing there food, Burger Kind and Wendy's would have another standard. If a company were really serious about selling this robochef it would need to be flexible and versatile enough to do all of these things in whichever way the restaurant expected it.

    So I agree that we will not be seeing this one armed machine cook up and fast food any time soon. Perhaps with the advent of the new "rubber muscle" we will see enough development in robotics to really do something this advanced.

    -Jon

  • yes....exactly. i'm 19 now, and in college, and i mannaged to get through high school making money flipping bits (and other intresting stuff) rather than flipping burgers. its just that more and more kids are wising up and realizing that they dont wanna flip burgers. ever.

    -james

  • On the contrary, the CashierSpamBot will pester you to buy fries, and then pester you to buy onion rings, and some other things. But first, it tell you each special and ask if you want one of those. And it won't listen to your interruptions or be discouraged by your glare.


    ---
  • Beat me to it. I was about to make a comment about Marvin.
  • For years I've wondered why McDonald's(TM) is still staffed entirely by human beings, when surely frying the fries and wrapping the burgers takes no more discretion or insight than a robot could muster.

    Here's a passage from George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. Moderate me down for unoriginality if you must, but I think that he poses the question qute elegantly. Plus, Down and Out is a great book, and you should read it if you have not already.

    I think one should start by saying that a plongeur (dishwasher) is one of the slaves of the modern world. Not that there is any need to whine over him, for he is better off than many manual workers, but still, he is no freer than if he were bought and sold. His work is servile and without art; he is paid just enough to keep him alive; his only holiday is the sack. He is cut off from marriage, or, if he marries, his wife must work too. Except by a lucky chance, he has no escape from this life, save into prison. At this moment there are men with university degrees scrubbing dishes in Paris for ten to fifteen hours a day. One cannot say that it is mere idleness on their part, for an idle man cannot be a plongeur; they have simply been trapped by a routine which makes thought impossible. If plongeurs thought at all, they would long ago have formed a union and gone on strike for better treatment. But they do not think, because they have no leisure for it; their life has made slaves of them.

    The question is, why does this slavery continue? People have a way of taking it for granted that all work is done for a sound purpose. They see somebody else doing a disagreeable job, and they think that they have solved things by saying that the job is necessary. Coal-mining, for example, is hard work - but it is necessary - we must have coal. Working in the sewers is unpleasant, but somebody must work in the sewers. And similarly with a plongeur's work. Some people must feed in restaurants, and so other people must swab dishes for eighty hours a week. It is the work of civilization, therefore unquestionable. This point is worth considering.

    Is a plongeur's work really necessary to civilization? We have a feeeling that it must be 'honest' work, because it is hard and disagreeable, and we have made a sort of fetish of manual work. We see a man cutting down a tree, and we make sure that he is filling a social need, just because he uses his muscles; it does not occur to us that he may only be cutting down a beautiful tree to make room for a hideous statue. I believe it is the same with a plongeur. He earns his bread in the sweat of his brow, but it does not follow that he is doing anything useful; he may only be supplying a luxury which, very often, is not a luxury.

    (George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, p103/104)


    --

  • The value in using this particular arm design is that it can be fitted into the existing kitchen without a redesign as it simply acts as another person. And you maintain the ability for a person to take over for a few hours if the robot fails and needs to be repaired. There are certainly more efficient ways to perform the same task, but they aren't always practical in a given situation.

    Kintanon
  • The point is, that it's a robot taking over in an area, where human expertise was thought to be prevalent. For years I've been having dinner in a diner, where I could order "Just make something tasty." if I didn't have a preference that day, and the cook would happily experiment and look for my comments. Or I could order specific things not on the menu, if I wanted. I doubt a robot-cook could be as versatile.

    But I see what a robot like this could do in a burger-restaurant: uninspired "off the rack" recipe's for hamburgers and fries, and such stuff. Just press your wishes on a computerized menu embedded in the table and five minutes later the trolley comes by, delivering your meal after you'd paid it. Not my cup-of-tea, I like the human interaction.

    Stefan.
    "One large fries." "Would you like fries with that, Ma'm?"

  • In Las Vegas, in 1996 or so, a fast food manager at Carl's Jr. was shot dead at the drive thru window one night for a very small cash register drawer.

    A robot would need maintenance and I believe eventually cost would go down significantly.
    There would not be any need for workman's comp or other insurances, but likely some other insurance is needed to cover any damage, etc.

    I have always had this great vision that someday, I can pull up to a convenience store drive thru at 2am. Only this store would be like one giant vending machine, programmed to serve me and taking my atm, charge card or cash.

    And when I get enough money, I'm going to make this happen!

    -marcia
  • you are undoubtedly more familiar with the state-of-the-art today, but there will come a day (if not today) when it will be cheaper to use mass-produced general purpose articulated arms than to custom build different machines for hamburgers, frankfurters, apple pies, etc.

    then, what to do with all the spare capacity of the highly capable arm? give it a calculator and it can participate in SETI@home :) or play that mumblety-peg game that the cyborg in Alien plays, with the knife and the splayed fingers :)

  • This is the same question that is asked everytime a new technology is developed...

    The same thing was said
    Of typing jobs when the PC came about.
    Of farming jobs when the tractor was invented.
    Of autoworkers when the robot was brought in.
    etc, etc, for ever...

    But while at first there was a huge loss of jobs in these fields, with the exception of farming, these jobs were recouped. In all cases new jobs were created that required a higher level of skill and thus pays more. Technology does not replace jobs, it creates new jobs that require better skills.

    Devil Ducky
  • Read the article again:

    a five-year lease package cost for the robot, griddle and steamer is $150,000.

    I don't know how much a restaurant-quality griddle and steamer costs, but it sounds almost competitive to me. The real question is whether or not the griddle can be used by human beings if the robot goes off-line.

  • How about: Here comes another great summer lunch opportunity. Who amongst the average high-school burger flipping crowd would be able to go from restaurant to restaurant upgrading firmware or troubleshooting this thing, or things like it. Instead of flipping burgers for minimum wage try flipping bits for considerably more...
  • I agree fully. I like being able to just pump my gas, and pay the invoice at the end of the month. I can't remember the last time someone pumped my gas...

    And anyways, as they said once on The Simpsons, "The wars of the future will be fought in space, or possibly on the top of tall mountains by robots. Your job will be to repair these robots". I mean, at least until AI gets really good, you'll still need people to design them, program them, build them, and repair them, and that's where the summer jobs will be.

    so, go go engineering! [www.dal.ca] ;^)
    -legolas

    i've looked at love from both sides now. from win and lose, and still somehow...

  • you might want to read the article, it makes a big point about the lack of workers and the quality of the existing workers, so it doesn't matter whether it costs more than employees it is an employ that is always available so it is worth alot more than the equivalent pay of a human worker. plus this price is high i would say since the person only made two of them, start mass producing them and the price will drop dramatically.
  • >>This could actually make a big difference as far as cleanliness is concerned.

    Well, except that humans would still be maintaining and cleaning the machine, not to mention supplying it with raw burger or batter or whatever. The whole process isn't totally automated; someone who wanted to put nasty stuff in your food could still easily do so. Also, if they were just lame about not cleaning it, I'm sure the machine itself could get pretty yucky.

    **cough** (stinkymeat [stinkymeat.net]) **cough**

  • Great in theory - use robots instead of people, then the people can be doing something more profitable, and society gets richer. The problem is that they are most likely to be waiting for their next dole cheque. Meanwhile the people profiting from the robot are the ones who own the fast food chain.

    But then again, this already happened with the manufacturing industry and the overall quality of life continues to increase (at least in "developed" countries). What's needed is more education and opportunities for poor people - then all those teenagers can be programming, or creating web sites, or making TV shows, or something actually worthwhile.

  • But, if McD's goes completely robotic, you've gotta worry about a drink machine like the Drinkmaster, or whatever it is, by the Cirius Cybernetics Corporation, which can't even make a cup of tea, or Marvin, the insanely sad robot. Can you imagine being served your burger and then hearing the server complain about why the world is so cruel to it?
  • www.fufme.com
    They've already started on this one.
  • This is really bad news for all those liberal arts majors out there.

  • As one of the other posters to this thread mentioned, Flipper was mentioned on NPR a day or two ago. What I remember from the broadcast however was that the arm was originally an arm used by IBM in computer fabrication that was lent (or sold cheaply) for the purpose of building a demo. So basically you were absolutely correct on all points, except I think you may be wrong on labor costs.

    The other thing they mentioned in that broadcast was that the original arm sold for something like 150K. Now, I know you can buy these things used and I know that you can buy smaller arms for about 50K (I've worked in a robotics labs). So say if there was a reasonable demand for these things the price would about an even 100K. Now these things can do the work of two people (according to the article) over sixteen hours... so really 4 people since most people work 8 hour shifts. So thats a salary savings of about 50k-60k a year. Now I don't know how much maintenance on these things cost, and I'm sure they'ld have to pay someone quite a bit to program them (although the programmer would probably service many of these things), but if it lasts for 5 or 10 years, even with maintenance costs you've still saved quite a bit of money.

  • Also in london, on Tooly Street, there is Cynthia's Cyberbar [cynbar.co.uk] which has robotic drink servers.

  • Twiki? (Score:1)

    by j1mmy ( 43634 )
    "Beedeebeedeebeedee what's up Buck?"

    Was that Twiki or I have I got my robots confused?
  • Lucas Gardner went once to one of those things, but the guy he went-in was never seen alive afterwards...

    --
    Here's my mirror [respublica.fr]

  • Pay extra? What they won't tell you is that the special sauce is actually Castrol 10W-40.
  • But does it make fish and chips?

    arg ... bad puns hurt.

    You know what to do with the HELLO.

  • Let's just imagine a totally automated restaurant with big mechanical robotic arms dispensing food, taking money and roughing up those customers that act in an un-McDonald's way.... Now let's imagine one of the big mechanical arms sparking a little over the 42 gallon vat of french fry oil.... Hmmmmm... Maybe I'm old fashioned, but that just doesn't sound like a pleasant dining experience.
  • Well...there goes another staple of high school summer employment opportunities
  • Maybe there are some people who are constitutionally or dispositionally unsuited to do creative work. Anyway, there's always been something wrong with the "technology creates jobs" position, since a factory full of robots does not require a factory's worth of human programmers and repairpeople. I do believe that many more people would be able to do satisfying and/or interesting work in an automated world, but maybe not everyone.

    However, that doesn't mean we should keep crap jobs around for these people! We need to introduce new ideas about how to socialize, communicate, and use one's time so that they find something else to do with it. Maybe a lot of them will end up gardening, or playing poker, or writing seriously awful poetry -- things that benefit no one, or that would be cheaper and more efficient if automated. But if we can make them happy, and make our whole society more prosperous, who cares?

    - Michael Cohn
  • Unfortunately, the abundance of teenagers with expendable cash seems to be sending our popular culture down the tubes. Look at popular music and movies, which are increasingly catering to teens (what kind of healthy society sends people like N'Sync and the Backstreet boys to the top of the charts?). It's just not right.

  • Re:Twiki? (Score:3)

    by pigpogm ( 70382 ) <michael@pigpog.com> on Wednesday May 24, 2000 @03:34AM (#1051310) Homepage
    That's the one. Same haircut as the LEGO people, and carried a more intelligent computer round it's neck like an oversized medallion.
  • Actually, I've already seen this. If you go to the McDonalds about halfway up International Drive in Orlando, they have a robotic arm type machine that makes all the fries. Not quite a generic multipurpose robot, but it did make a change from the usual.
  • Resistance is futile; you will have fries with that.
  • I mean, why are we suprised, and why is this article even mentioned on slashdot ?? Have you people forgotten that robots already make cars, computers, aeroplanes etc... What is the technical whizz-bangery involved in getting a 5-axis arm to flip a burger ? Its not like the robot has a taste test, and decides it needs more salt.
    This is just another example of talking-dog phenomenon - make a dog bark in a way that vaugely sounds like either :
    • Herro (Hello)
    • Sings happy birthday...
    • etc...
    And you are guaranteed to win your local funniest home videos TV show. But get a robot to flip burgers and it gets on slashdot - what is this place coming to ??
  • Now the question is, is this a good thing or a bad thing. Sure, implementing this across the nation in burger joints is good for business, but when does it stop? A large investment can do the work of two people, but what of those two people? Or everyone else this puts out of work. Sure, robots and technology are great, but there has to be a moral point when putting people out of work - like students for whom McDonalds is a great source of tuition - becomes wrong. We have millions of people on this planet, with thousands being born everyday. Does *anyone* see a problem in the near future? Human nature makes us progress and use technology to our benefit, but human nature also makes a lot o' babies! We might see a huge rise in unemployment soon.


    Ok, did you read the article? Did you see the apart about how HARD it is to find people to fill these jobs? The robots wouldn't be taking anyone's job, they would be filling positions that are currently empty from lack of applicants.
    Though personally I'd love to have some working the register so they'd get my order right, I said EXTRA ONIONS AND CHEESE! EXTRA! Not NONE DAMNIT!! >:)
    I always wondered why they don't just turn the push button register around and let me enter my own order, scan my credit card, and then pick my food up and leave 5 minutes later...

    Kintanon

  • I want to be ecstatic over this... (Score:3)

    by laborit ( 90558 ) on Wednesday May 24, 2000 @04:08AM (#1051322) Homepage
    I really do. There's no reason that humans -- big, dexterous, highly adaptable creatures with a one and a half kilo universe in their crania -- should be reduced to burger-flipping automata. For years I've wondered why McDonald's(TM) is still staffed entirely by human beings, when surely frying the fries and wrapping the burgers takes no more discretion or insight than a robot could muster.
    I can only think of a few possibilities, all of them bad:

    1) People are so isolated (or so eager to abuse someone) that their brief interaction with the counter-person is significant.
     This has little to do with automating preparation, though.

    2) We need to employ all those teenagers and uneducated people.
    But a few decades ago, those teenagers wouldn't have been expected to work! Do we really want to create an environment in which every high school student is expected to waste valuable learning and socialization time on a meaningless, tedious job? Furthermore, do we really want these jobs to exist as a band-aid for a society in which decent trade-school education is vanishing?

    3) People who can do no other work need a job to give structure to their lives.
    This has merit, but what if the existence of these jobs is creating the people who can do no other work? Isn't it possible that if the high school students had more time and a better educational system, and the unemployed people got training instead of threats to go find some kind of work, no matter how menial, that there wouldn't be so many people who need to flip burgers to earn their bread?

    As technology improves, we need to start looking past the "work gives humans value" paradigm. Moderate me to "-1 crypto-socialist" if you will, but at some point perhaps it will become more efficient and cheaper -- not to mention more humane -- to take care of people rather than keeping around jobs that could just as easily be done by Flipper the burger-bot.

    - Michael Cohn
  • Put people out of work... yay.....

    They will find new jobs. The economy picks up slack like that. You might as well complain about automotive robots. Or complain that the pocket calculator has reduced the demand for people good with figures. The car has killed one of the major uses for horses; look at all the poor people who used to raise horses and were put out of business by it. E-mail is destroying one of the large markets for the US Postal Service. Everything is becoming more automated. By your logic, we should see ten times more people out of work today compared with the beginning of the 20th century. It doesn't happen, because people find things to do, and the economy picks up the slack.

    Ultimately, automation makes everybody richer. A new technology might put some people out of work, but they'll get re-employed. Why do we have sympathy for people whose only skills are easily reproduced by a machine? This logic escapes me. But they'll find new jobs. There are always places where self-programming computers are needed. If the person is too dumb for that, well, I see no moral obligation to support him. The net result is, the old job still gets done, and the human who used to do it is now doing something new. The employer for this job is getting the same work done for less money, and he can pass these savings on to his customers. Lower prices means higher profits, and his customers are happier too. Even if he keeps prices the same, he gets more money, which he then turns around and spends. Wages go up. Prices go down. Neat things happen.

    Currently, we're experiencing the longest period of consistent growth, lack of unemployment, and lack of inflation in history. (This is in the US; the rest of the world seems to be doing not as well in some places, but it's still very, very good compared to history.) Why do you think this is?
  • What is keeping McDonald's from doing this? Nothing. They are working on it right now; a McD's that is run by 2 people + robots. I've said for a long time: if you raise the minimum wage enough, then it will be more cost effective to use robotics than people. Given that McD's already has every part of making your order down to a science (I've said before that if McD's wanted to become ISO-9000 certified, they could do so in about 5 minutes), it would be no problem for them to automate everything.


    If you've ever read the Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison, you know where we are going: McSwineys, where you speak your order into a mike, and the food is prepared automatically. Although given current state of the art, I'd expect more of an ATM type system: You push the Big Mac button, the extra onions button, the Large Coke button, and feed your $5 in, and your food pops out a little door. After all, that's all the cash registers are now!


  • No other costs? How do you supposed the robot runs? Magic? There are lots and lots of other costs:

    I doubt it uses that much power, compared to the cost of keeping the cookers running, etc. Maintenance and repairs I'll accept. Cleaning staff are required anyway whether you have robot or human so that's not extra, and probably same with deliveries. Construction maybe, unless that's part of the original price....

    I guess I was wrong to say "No other costs" but I still maintain that it would be cheaper than a human employee in the long run (which you seem to agree with in your final sentence)....not that I expect you to still be reading this tho :-)

    dylan_-


    --

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Tippmann said the robot had been used by IBM Corp. in computer assembly before he refitted the machine to perform a wide array of cooking tasks--eggs, hamburgers, french fries.

    Geezzz...from a top rated company to a short order cook. Man, IBM could have atleast retrained the robot for another division or atleast opt-out for early retirement. Talk about getting the short end of the Downsizing Stick.

  • How does it remember where the burgers are, ya think? Vision? Does it account for possible slippage after it flips them onto the grill? I realize that they won't be going far, but still. Would the consistency of the pancake batter mean that the pancakes might come out different sizes, and thus make them harder to flip?

    I love the vision of the arm taking a burger from grill to bun. I can just see the little robotic finger come out and hold the burger as it slips the spatula out from under it :).

  • Is hook up a robot burger flipping arm to a web server, and have some little Java program that will let you control it over the web. Post the link on Slashdot. After all, we are still looking for new and interesting things to /.

  • This kind of "device" (actually, use of a device), comes out as "the next new thing" every now and then (I remember a similar story back when I was 10 or so - a good 15 years ago). What makes me really angry, is that they foist this off on us as "new", expecting us to forget the last 20 years - and you know what? The majority of people don't remember! They really do think that what they are shown is new, wonderful, and should be installed everywhere (at the same time, seeing this reaction, and seeing the "news" they sell in magazines, etc - how everyone is a smiley SOB - happy, happy! - look at Brad Pitt's hair - joy, joy! - feed us more - it makes me sick, and saddened - that people like this).

    Ok, where was I... Oh yes!

    Robotic burger flippers are not going to happen. We won't see a bunch of waving mechanical arms behind the counter any time soon. Even if we do get the fully automated burger joint, it won't consist of large industrial robots flipping burgers. This isn't cost effective, nor is it efficient.

    It will likely consist of an assembly line style system - imagine a conveyor belt moving the bottom of a bun along. Under a spout - bloup!! - a dab of mayo. Another - bloup!! - a bit of ketchup. Under a tube - splat!! - a burger (side note: the burger would probably be cooked similar to the conveyor grills Burger King uses - for fried burgers, the system would probably use a similar thing, but with a rolled steel multi-segment tank tread-like belt, heated by gas flame). A little bit further - whir, whir, chop - splat!! - some lettuce and tomato. Then under another tube for the top bun. Maybe there is one worker stuffing the burger into a box (or maybe they can automatically wrap the sucker somehow).

    Actually, we already have the automated burger making system (has to be at least semi-automated, anyhow) - look at the Hormel line of "frozen cheeseburger in a box" - as well as the microwavable fries in a box from other vendors. Look at just about any manufacturer of frozen foods. Just stop the system before freezing (but after cooking and assembly) and there you are.

    A similar system could be come up with for pancakes, eggs and bacon. If the pancakes, eggs and bacon were in frozen form before cooking (think like the frozen Krusteaz brand of pancakes, and add a Swanson breakfast of eggs/sausage), it would be easy.

    Excuse me, but I think if that is the future of fast food (can it really get worse!?), then I will go puke now...
  • Gov. Bush today unveiled a robot that will not only serve a death-row prison his last meal but will also pull the switch at his execution. Research is being done for a lethal injection arm for the wimpy states.

    Sylvester Stallone is looking at a sequel to Over The Top where a disgruntled burger-flipping robot arm kidnaps his son and challenges Sly to a arm wrestling match for his freedom.

  • Yo Sushi also has the rather cool scooter things you see, erm, scooting about. But I digress...

    There's a really tacky bar, just under London Bridge with two robotic bar tenders. Go up, press a button (and swipe a card, I guess), and watch in amazement as it mixes you a cocktail. Woo! Timeout (what's on listings magazine) said it was kinda cool, if I recall.

    Personally - after having set foot in there when passing by - I wouldn't be seen dead in the place.

    Anyone tried it out?

    ...j

  • Batteries Not Included (Score:3)

    by generic-man ( 33649 ) on Wednesday May 24, 2000 @04:29AM (#1051348) Homepage Journal
    Puh-leeze. Robotic short-order cooks have been around ever since they dropped from space [imdb.com] back in 1987 to help save a diner in a poor tenement area of some city.

    Too bad they couldn't make a decent hamburger -- they kept putting the damn patty on top of the bun, like an olive on top of a sandwich.

  • And when I get enough money, I'm going to make this happen!

    Too late [theimageworks.com].

  • I suspect that's a bit cheaper than most employees, with no other costs.

    No other costs? How do you supposed the robot runs? Magic? There are lots and lots of other costs:

    • Power.
    • Maintenance.
    • Repairs.
    • Cleaning (not just of the robot, but also of the rest of the kitchen; you don't want to be shut down by the health department).
    • Supplying (the robot doesn't walk to the delivery truck and takes the boxes of meat).
    • Construction (the robot plus griddle/oven won't fit in your kitchen as it is now).
    And then of course you still need people to help the customers, to assemble the burgers and all other stuff that's needed to actually feed the customer. OTOH, an employee making $X/hour costs the employer a lot more than $X/hour. Think insurance, health plans, 401k, training, management, etc.

    -- Abigail

  • The value in using this particular arm design is that it can be fitted into the existing kitchen without a redesign as it simply acts as another person.

    Yes, but robots don't. I seriously doubt a large fraction of the current fast food kitchens have room for an inmobile robot in front of the griddle. Not only does the robot take at least as much space as a human, there will also be a safety zone where people should not enter when the robot is in operation; some safety laws might even demand the robot automatically shuts down when someone gets too close.

    And you maintain the ability for a person to take over for a few hours if the robot fails and needs to be repaired.

    With a big dead hump of metal in front of the griddle? Where's the person supposed to stand?

    -- Abigail

  • McDonalds is soulless food for soulless people. I can't think of anything more dehumanizing than answering a series of beeps, whistles, and codified, standardized commands issuign forth from customers' and managers' lips. That's what McDonalds is like right now. And the food is crap. I can't understand why people even eat that stuff or why they even desire it other than the fact that it's there and they're in a hurry. But if people want to eat, and don't want to pack a lunch or cook dinner, then go ahead and eat from the hands of a Dalek or his human slave. Hell, why don't they just make a delicious "Burger Paste" so we can go up to the counter, pop in our quarter and suck it out of Grimace's plastic ass.

    Geez, get abandoned at your 6th birthday party there or something? It's not so much soulless food as it is standard food. Is any loving care really put into it? No, and why should it? You're not genuinely appreciating the meal, are you? McDonalds and the like are there for unskilled labor to contribute to society in the form of fast, cheap nourishment for the masses.

    And think about your statement about "than answering a series of beeps, whistles, and codified, standardized commands issuing" ... Sounds a bit like debugging code, except it comes from the compilers lips, and not a humans. This is, IMO more 'soulless'.

    What ever happened to the family-owned diner that was never more than half-full, where they know your name and what you like on a sandwich?

    And yet you call the workers at McDonalds automata, when in the same breath you yearn for a sandwich made by someone who doesn't think about it ("and what you like on a sandwich? your words not mine)? How is this any different? Those places thrived on repeat business, the same as any other, and the same thing happened at McDonalds: there is repeat business, and certian people only ever order their burger a certian kind of way. Yes, I've worked there, no shame in it when you're 16 and mommy & daddy don't buy you everything (no I'm not implying you're spoiled, I'm just stating I wasn't).

    I honestly believe places like McDonalds do good for society. It allows relatively unskilled labor a chance to earn a wage; not a GREAT wage, but then again, not all jobs should allow you to live high on the hog or whatever the statement is. It provides jobs for teenagers who, let's face it, are not the most exactly sought after employees of businesses. And as I said earlier, it provides fast, cheap food for millions of people a day, something that your homestyle resturaunts couldn't do. Now, I love little out of the way places like "grannys kitchen" or whatever, but when you've got a 30 minute lunch assigned to you, you can't wait around for home cooking. I grant you this isn't so much the fault of the resturaunt as it is the way our society has become, but for that, we should also not fault McDonalds for adapting to it; if it wasn't an accepted business practice, McDonalds, and for that matter all fast food chains, would have folded years ago.

  • Take a look at fast-food nowadays. New items are continuously being added and removed from the menu. Having flexibility in the cook to make those new items is an incredible advantage.

    When was the last time you went to McDonalds or Burgerking that they didn't have hamburgers or fries? Some items may appear or disappear, but one of the key things in the success of fast-food chains is their uniformity *and* the fact it doesn't change much. Fries are there to stay. Burgers are there to stay.

    -- Abigail

  • I don't know about you, but I'd actually pay extra for a burger that was prepared "untouched by human hands".

    But this machine only cooks the burgers. It doesn't butcher the cow. It doesn't grind the meat. It doesn't make them into patties. It doesn't pack the patties in a box. It doesn't make the bun. It doesn't put the meat on the bun. It doesn't cut the lettuce, tomato or onion. It doesn't assemble the burger.

    Untouched by human hands seems nice - but Flipper doesn't make that happen.

    -- Abigail


  • They seriously think that there is a market for a $150,000 machine ( plus maintenance) that only makes burgers and pancakes?!? You can pay a single fast-food cook for over 8 years for that amount--and he will cook everything on the menu.

    Actually, as was pointed out, that's over 5 years, so:

    $150,000 divided by 5 years, divided by 365 days, divided by 16 hours gives roughly $5.14 an hour.

    I suspect that's a bit cheaper than most employees, with no other costs. Also, the machine seems to be a lot more efficient than a person...

    dylan_-


    --

  • What if a Beowulf cluster of these existed? Whoops, it does: McDonald's
  • Yeah! Then we can link all of our cyber kids into a huge "collective", which will be good until they become sentinant and launch the nuclear missles at the enemy and start WW3. Of course they won't do that unless we give them one meeeelion dollars....

    I could do this all day, films are so formulaic these days...;)
  • Look at www.accutemp.net. The company specializes in cooking equipment. Specifically griddles and steamers. The robot was meant as a promotional bit at a trade show -- "This new griddle boasts such accurate and consistent temperature control across its surface that even a robot can cook on it." This makes me think that the robot is extremely stupid which makes the story much less interesting. I'd rather see a robot that could cook well on a bad griddle -- "This new robot is so advanced it can make soufflé a in a cast iron pot over a camp fire."
  • Must all issues be dichotomous? Are you "The One" and only see the world in binary?

    Just because I refuse to ignore the decreasing middle/working class, doesn't mean that I want to subsidize them by doing everything really, really, inefficiently.

    When factory jobs are eliminated the people who would have had those jobs are usually far worse off. That is fact, and has been proven time and again in company towns all over the county since the industrial revolution.

    Acknowledging this reality isn't disagreeing with general progress. There are plenty of alternatives other than "tons-of-menial-jobs" and "tons-of-automation-and-a-desperate-underclass". I alluded to this in my original post when I said "Of course there are other outcomes that would be even better than factory jobs, but since those would require cluefulness and concern all around, I'm not holding my breath."

    But perhaps trolls can't read too well?
  • [In stumbles our hero, Charelston Heston, full of terror, anger, and near insanity -- clutching a burger.]

    1. "McSoilent Green ... is McPeople!"

  • Who said it had to be 100% immobile? Fasten it to the floor, us a key to secure it. If it malfunctions just unlock it, move it, and have a human take over.
    You think they built the one on the demo into the floor? Not likely.
    The idea is perfectly sound. This may not be the BEST design for it, but it does have advantages.

    Kintanon
  • We have several linux controled big yellow robot arms in our factory, the handle alternator stator cores into and out of varnishing, and milling machines. once we finish installing a couple more arms, we will be processing one stator every 12 seconds. the big thing that has to be figured out, is sensing what parts are where, and also measuring them. we use linux systems with IR cameras and BT848 cards to sense, and measure to .003" so the milling machines can efficently cut the parts after being covered in varnish. I wish I had some pictures handy.
  • The scary part is how right-on the predictions for PC's in home were, though they did luck out with the internet.

    What's taking so long with the live-in-adroid we were promised? I'm sure once they perfect human/driod lovemaking it'll reach market saturation.

  • American Society (Score:3)

    by Spax ( 84516 ) on Wednesday May 24, 2000 @04:55AM (#1051386) Homepage
    The problem with this century is that we want robots to do our work, but refuse to build a society where -- if all work was doen for us -- we would be happy. Robots that buld cars or make candy bars should have made workers at Ford or Leaf able to spend time with their kids, relax at the park, etc. Instead they're homeless and unable to find work to pay for food, cars, candy bars, etc.

    I'm all for developments in robotic technology that allow for a culture of leisure, but not one where owners of robots make money at the expense of humans.

    Really the only future of a robotic society is one where everyoneworks to buy a robot as a proxy worker, which would be leased to factories and employers.
  • What would we do if a robot became an Iron Chef?? Japanese cooks would be up in arms! Iron Chef Namek would go on a rampage! The pun police would charge in with riot gear and destroy Kitchen Stadium!

    You know what to do with the HELLO.

  • the leathal injection machine has already been invented:
    http://www.mrdeath.net/who/credentials.html

  • I'm not sure what you meant by:"while at first there was a huge loss of jobs in these fields, with the exception of farming, these jobs were recouped."

    Factory farming has all but replaced family-owned farms in the US. The family farms that do remain do so by consolidating and instituting factory-farming methods - huge broiler-houses, automatic irrigation, heavy chemical reliance, genetically-modified food, intensive low-grade livestock feed (such as feeding the chicken's rotting feathers back to them) and so forth. Not only is it destroying the environment, but accelerates the effect of capital flight, because the workers are no longer the ones who own the farms, but merely employees of some huge corporation. In essence they're landless farmers.

    I may be exaggerating the situation a bit but this arrangement of affairs is much more aggaravated in Central and South America, where mutated descendents of the United Fruit Company (such as Chiquita) have pretty much taken over all the land and all the former peasant farmers are now landless, seasonal laborers.

    What does this have to do with a burger-flipping robot? Well, how is it any different from the burger-conveyor belt at Burger King? Less efficient. What's the difference between 10 family farms and one corporate farm? They're less efficent. So what does tbat mean to you? You pay less for your burger while 5 families lose their means of livlihood. Mmm-mmm, taste that progress.

  • Plus theres no training...lost income from those damned kids making thier friends triples when they ordered singles...no bathroom breaks, smoking breaks...kids BSin in the back...

    Sounds cool to me.
  • But will it say "Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger"?
  • So thats a salary savings of about 50k-60k a year.

    That's if you can find people to work at minimum wage in your labor market. A large part of the Trib article talked about the rising costs of restaurant labor.

    And after 20+ years of robots in the manufacturing business, it's clear that you can't just fire your short order cook. You have to train him into a robot short order cook operator. And then, since he's now a trained technical professional, you have to pay him more, even though 90% of the time he's standing there picking his nose, and the rest of the time he's scraping burgers off the floor.

    It's these realities which have kept robots out of the kitchen so far... these robots have been around for decades. This is just a marketing gimmick.

  • Twiki was voiced by none other than by Mel Blanc, with Eric Server as the voice of Dr. Theopolis (gotta love the IMDB).

    Hawk ruled that show hardcore, though.

  • Alas for poor ED-209. You make ONE little slipup on the job, blow away a minor executive, and you're stuck flipping burgers for the rest of your days.
  • Sure, but OTOH, which is better;

    A 150k chunk of ironmongery that you stick in a corner...

    You missed the point here -- the comparison is between a $5000 machine that makes burgers and the $150K 'Armatron'. (Can you still buy those? I used to spend hours at Radio Shack playing with them as a kid)

    Making machines that work like people, even to the extent of simply having an 'arm', is usually a fundamentally stupid thing to do. The human machine is very adaptable, but isn't terribly good at basic tasks, and it takes an insane amount of computing power to run. Simple, dedicated hardware will be always be cheaper, more efficient, and easier to maintain.

  • There's no reason that humans -- big, dexterous, highly adaptable creatures with a one and a half kilo universe in their crania -- should be reduced to burger-flipping automata.

    Well, there is a reason, and you addressed it when you used the word 'adaptable.' You see, we could design a robot that flips burgers and also detects when a burger has fallen apart, when the raw burger bin is empty, fetches more patties, detects when the griddle has quit and turns it back on again, senses the proper doneness of the meat, and deals with the other 101 things that Murphy throws at it during the course of the day. But that robot would be so expensive that it would be unattractive to McBurger Inc.

    So unfortunately, we must still employ an adaptable, general purpose wage slave to do the most mundane tasks, like flipping burgers and putting little cotton balls into medicine bottles, because although 99% of the job is mindless repetition, we still have to deal with the other 1% of the task that requires observation, deduction, and problem solving abilities.

    Besides, I had a burger assembly job for six weeks when I was a teenager. And although I hated it, it was the only (legal) way for me to make enough money to buy my first car. Ironically, the worst part of the job wasn't the mundane task of slinging patties - it was dealing with the 455h013 shift manager who compensated for his miserable, futureless life by treating us like dirt. That, and cleaning the grease traps.

  • Like the service isn't bad enough already (Score:3)

    by gad_zuki! ( 70830 ) on Wednesday May 24, 2000 @05:00AM (#1051416)
    Oh thats exactly what fast food needs, less thinking. So who do you bitch to when it screws up the order? How would you like to be behind every bored teenager trying to order a bun-less quarter-pounder dipped in mayo and feeding a photocopy of a ten dollar bill into the machine?

    Not to mention those robots better be good at cleaning out bathrooms.
  • This robot is only one part of the picture. What's needed is:

    Robotic cow-rearing units with automated grass planting

    Fully automated cow-killer

    Robot which chops up the cows into beef

    Robot to grind the beef and press it into burgers

    Robot to cook the burgers (ie, this one)

    Serving machine in drive-through fast-food outlet

    Self-driving cars which take customers automatically to McDonald's

    Bionic jaw muscle attachments, so you don't have to spend effort chewing

    Computer-controlled automatic toilet on wheels that follows you around to be ready when you need a dump

    Automated sewage disposal (I think we have this).

  • Autoworkers are another exception (Score:3)

    by bridgette ( 35800 ) on Wednesday May 24, 2000 @05:14AM (#1051423)
    Those who would have been autoworkers (or other facory workers) in the US 20-30 years ago are generally worse off today, although "globalization" has probably had more of an impact than robots.

    Yes unemployment is low, and the economy is strong. But most of the gains in employment are temporary and part-time work - which makes basic benefits (medical, pension, vacation) difficult to attain and maintain. In fact, last year a temp agency was the fastest growing employeer. And while some of us are doing extremly well, the median US income has dropped since the 70's, if you account for inflation.

    So while I wouldn't wan't to work in a factory, there are pleanty of folks who would be far better off with steady, secure, well-paying, factory jobs with full benefits.

    Of course there are other outcomes that would be even better than facory jobs, but since those would require cluefulness and concern all around, I'm not holding my breath.

  • Re:Silly Design (Score:3)

    by PD ( 9577 ) <slashdotlinux@pdrap.org> on Wednesday May 24, 2000 @05:52AM (#1051425) Homepage Journal
    Sure you could make a machine that cooks hamburgers, but could you make one that cooks hamburgers, then cleans the grill at the end of the night? It makes no sense to have a robot if you still have to have a human clean up after it. An articulated arm is versatile because restaurant work is sometimes difficult, and there are a wide variety of things to do in a restaurant. Even making different burgers would require different machines, but a single arm could be programmed to do it. You also forget that the operation of putting the mustard, ketchup, onion, pickle, and cheese on the toased sesame seed bun is something that requires a dexteritous arm to accomplish.

    My experience qualifies me to talk about this: 3.1 years as a McDonald's grunt. Working for for the clown was OK for high school.
  • I stumbled across (this admittedly minimal) site looking to see if there was an official site for MS Windows Millennium Edition. As far as I can tell there still isn't one, but at least I know where to go to find a Window Washing robot for high-rise buildings [windowsme.com].


  • void makeburger(void) {
    Cookside(0);
    Cookside(1);
    if(BURGERFELL=TRUE) {
    PickUpBurger();
    DustOffBurger();
    }
    }

  • Silly Design (Score:4)

    by CaseyB ( 1105 ) on Wednesday May 24, 2000 @03:47AM (#1051434)
    Perhaps this is intended only as a proof-of-concept, but a spatula-wielding arm is an extremely overcomplicated way of producing hamburgers and pancakes. Much cheaper (but admittedly less impressive) custom 'hamburger' or 'pancake' machines could accomplish the same work at several orders of magnitude less cost.

    An articulated arm is an extremely flexible tool that can be repurposed for the evolving needs of say, a car factory, where new vehicle models require that the same tools adapt to manufacturing new products. I don't think that the same requirements apply to a fast food restaurant.

    The real value of the robot would be as a 'hook' to attract customers to see it work, not it's raw savings in labour cost.

  • I'd actually pay extra for this... (Score:5)

    by Guppy ( 12314 ) on Wednesday May 24, 2000 @03:47AM (#1051435)
    I don't know about you, but I'd actually pay extra for a burger that was prepared "untouched by human hands". I once walked into fast food place (that shall remain nameless) during a slow part of the day, when I was the only customer. Right in front of me, two employees were flinging burgers at each other. The manager stood just a few feet away, watching the pair and laughing.

    You'll never have to worry if the machine has hepatitis, or maybe forgot to wash it's hands after going to the bathroom.

  • Sushi chef (offtopic, kinda) (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Here in London, there is a Sushi bar called Yo! Sushi in Poland Street. The sushi chef is a robot, as is the bar waiter, which is basically a small trolley loaded with booze and pop that circulates around the restaurant. Sushi goes past your table on a conveyor belt, and you simply pick up whichever plate you want. The plates are colour coded, so you simply call a waiter over (They only get to clear away plates and tot up the bill) and they hand you a tab to pay on your way out. The sashimi is pretty good. Unfortunately there is a bar below the restaurant that has a beer dispenser (rather like the mouthwash dispensers in dentist's chairs) at each table. The results of an evening out, sitting on the floor with beer on tap and no need to go to the bar are predictable...
  • A few points:
    • A burger or pancake machine won't cost nowhere as much as a robotic arm.
    • What makes arms so special that they can be reprogrammed, but box shaped machines can't?
    • The article didn't say anything about it being able to cook much anything that fits on the grill. Burgers and pancakes are very uniform, not only from unit to unit, but very uniform in a single unit as well. Just because it can flip burgers doesn't mean it can fry eggs or onions.
    • The article didn't mention cleaning up at night. All it did was removing some grease from the plate between cookings. If that's all the cleaning you do at night, the health department will shut you down very quickly.
    • What's so special about the arm that it is modular and upgradable, but a machine that doesn't mimic a human arm isn't?

    I rather have the cheap, small burger machine in the corner, with a redundant one next to it, than a big expensive, immobile, moving piece of iron imitating a human arm in the middle of the kitchen.

    -- Abigail

  • That's like a webmaster saying: "If Dreamweaver gets any more advanced, I'll be out of a job, starving and homeless".

    If all you can do is one thing, then you should consider yourself just a more expensive robot.

    Having a robot do the repetitive, menial tasks lets humans, as a whole, focus on things that require more intelligence, versatility and creativity. This is a good thing.

  • An articulated arm is an extremely flexible tool that can be repurposed for the evolving needs of say, a car factory, where new vehicle models require that the same tools adapt to manufacturing new products. I don't think that the same requirements apply to a fast food restaurant.

    Your car example was a perfect parallel to why a fast food company would prefer a moving arm than a specialized "hamburger" or "pancake" machine. If a company goes out and buys one of those specialized machines, they're locked in. The menu won't be able to change. Take a look at fast-food nowadays. New items are continuously being added and removed from the menu. Having flexibility in the cook to make those new items is an incredible advantage.

  • Why would they need to be good at cleaning out bathrooms? The current workers aren't.
  • It's not so much if it be done but that it was done. These are the type of things that we were promised would be real "in the future," and they usually said by the year 2000! We are now in the year 2000 and these things are becoming real. They are still a trivial part of society but they do exist and useful technology will spread and evolve from these meek beginnings.

    >This is just another example of talking-dog phenomenon
    On "The Jetsons," not only did they have flying cars, robots who did housework, computers that cooked the food, and no Microsoft; they also had a dog that could talk "herro rorge."

    Devil Ducky
  • Imagine it - you could go to the drive-thru window and your order would be right every time!

    Now, looking at this, how far away are we going to be from a 100% robotic restraunt? Near where I live we have a gas station that has no employees - just pumps. You can use either credit cards or cash at it and the gas is usually $0.10 cheaper than if you go into a station with human employees.

    So what is keeping, say, McDonald's from doing this same thing?

  • Flipper! (Score:3)

    by Pope Slackman ( 13727 ) on Wednesday May 24, 2000 @03:53AM (#1051461) Homepage Journal
    They call him Flipper, Flipper, Flipper/
    he's faster than lightning/
    no one you see/
    flips burgers like he.../

    Couldn't resist.

    --KMM

    =-=-=

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