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Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
The kitchen assistant, known as 'Flippy', was designed by a startup called Miso Robotics which specializes in "technology that assists and empowers chefs to make food consistently and perfectly, at prices everyone can afford."
[...] Flippy uses feedback-loops that reinforce its good behavior so it gets better with each flip of the burger. Unlike an assembly line robot that needs to have everything positioned in an exact ordered pattern, Flippy's machine learning algorithms allow it to pick uncooked burgers from a stack or flip those already on the grill. Hardware like cameras helps Flippy see and navigate its surroundings while sensors inform the robot when a burger is ready or still raw. Meanwhile, an integrated system that sends orders from the counter back to the kitchen informs Flippy just how many raw burgers it should be prepping.
Source: http://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/burger-robot-flipping-meat-0432432/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @04:31PM
You'd still need to have humans at these locations, you'd just have to have fewer humans at these locations. At bare minimum you'd have to have somebody signing for packages and cleaning up. We're not likely to get to the point where that's not necessary for a very long time.
Just have those folks do the maintenance of the bot and you've still got a massive increase in efficiency.
The real problem here is that in places like the US that have a pathological fear of letting people who aren't wealthy or powerful collect money without earning it. If these restaurants eliminate the positions, those people are going to have to find work elsewhere, or there'll be no incentive not to go on a rampage looting and pillaging the people with the money. The fast food industry has been one of the places that people get jobs just before they go homeless. There's a reason why you so often see people working for McDonalds eating there.