If Isaac Asimov saw the paths that the 21st century is taking between artificial intelligence and robotics, he might think that his predictions fell short. What does not seem short is the journey and the scope that the use of robots can have in the food industry.
Something that they are beginning to know a lot about in the American company Chipotle, one of the fast food brands in the United States, focused on Tex-Mex and Mexican cuisine. Burritos, enchiladas, tacos… Chipotle’s specialties are in that mix of Texan and Mexican and are present in more than 3,000 restaurants that the chain has throughout the country.
Although at the moment it has not made the leap to Europe, where Chipotle does jump — especially because of its CTO Curt Garner– is in the field of robotics and new technologies put at the service of their clients.
In an interview granted to Fast Company, Garner talked about Chipotle’s next big revolution: a robot capable of assembling burritos on its own. In the same way that now, for example, we go to McDonald’s and Burger King and order from machines, Chipotle goes further and will allow you to assemble your burrito with hardly any human interaction.
The machine in question is called Hyphen and the intention is to develop it so that it is capable on its own of manage burritos and salads automatically without any employee having to participate. The only thing the workers will have to do, they explain, will be “put the lid on and put the bowl in the bag.”
However, Garner explained that “Chipotle is like a French pastry shop: shopping with your senses,” explaining that Hyphen and its development does not intend to turn its restaurants into “vending machines.”
What they insist, as reflected by Fast Company, is that “these robots can be used for takeout orders“where dealing with a human is completely irrelevant. The truth is that it is not Chipotle’s first great innovation.
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They also developed a machine that allowed avocados to be peeled and cut at high speed, which they named Autocado, or a machine for making wheat tortillas called Chippy, which streamlined both processes.
Images | Chipotle
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