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AI Robotic Restaurant & Robotic Delivery News 2024

Updated retailsystems.org news article on AI robotic restaurant news

Robotic Restaurant News

We just got back from NRF and AI robotic restaurant stuff was all over the show floor. Robotic pizza for example. One of our favorite aspects of AI is overhead cameras in the kitchen to monitor food preparation. Also table usage. Here is our wrap on recent robotic restaurant news

Uber Eats and Mitsubishi in Japan delivery robot — 1. Pan of delivery robot of Uber Eats moving on the sidewalk in Nihonbashi, Tokyo 2. Various of delivery robot moving on the sidewalk 3. Mid of person ordering food on a smartphone for demonstration 4. Wide of delivery robot starting delivery 5. Various of delivery robot moving on the sidewalk 6. Pan of a media conference 7. SOUNDBITE (Japanese), Alvin Oo, Director of Market Operations of Uber Eats Japan:
Rivalry Tech partnering with RoboEatz — RoboEatz is known for its autonomous robotic kitchen system, which prepares high-quality dishes efficiently and consistently for health care organizations, businesses, higher education institutions and quick-service restaurants. Rivalry Tech will couple RoboEatz’s system with its user interface, known as myEATZ, that’s currently in use at several Houston Methodist Hospitals, the TMC Innovation Factory, and in resorts, hospitals, office buildings, and more, according to the company’s website.
Market Leader Chef Robotics Surpasses 10M Meals in Production Using AI-Enabled Robots — Consider that it took Chef 314 days to get to 1M meals in production, 100 days to reach 2M, an additional 21 days to get to 3M, and only 18 additional days to get to 4M.
5 Things to Know About Kernel, the New Restaurant From the Founder of Chipotle — You can’t just walk in and get food. What’s so unusual about Kernel? It shaves down the number of workers per shop to three instead of, say, 10. It features a robot arm that prepares up to 1000 individual items a day. And it blows past current notions of hospitality with the shop’s method of ordering and pick up.
The Robot Report — According to A3, North American companies purchased 31,159 robots in 2023, compared with 44,196 ordered in 2022 and 39,708 in 2021. These 2023 robot orders were divided almost equally among automotive (15,723 robots sold) and non-automotive companies (15,436 robots sold). This represented a 34% drop in sales to automotive OEMs and automotive suppliers over 2022 and a 25% total decrease in all other industries. A3 will show the latest technologies at Automate in Chicago from May 6 to 9, 2024. It will feature more than 750 exhibitors of everything from robotics and motion control to machine vision and artificial intelligence for a variety of industries and applications. “While robotic sales were down over the year, 2023 ended with both an increase over the previous quarter and a nearly equal number of sales from automotive and non-automotive companies,” noted Burnstein. “Both are promising signs that more industries are becoming increasingly comfortable with automation overall.”
CaliExpress and Pasadena Feb 12th news
See our NRF 2024 review and writeup. The show was terrific. Check out our photo gallery. The line at the pizza ordering kiosk to order the robotic pizza was very long.
From Tim Tang — “The most impressive thing that I saw at NRF 2024 for restaurants was the bartaco dine-in restaurant experience with Amazon Pay and OneDine. This initiative demonstrated an intimate understanding and sensitivity to the guest experience while creatively solving a common industry tech debt challenge of legacy POS through an innovative collaboration with market leading technologies. With rising operational costs, an ongoing labor shortage and shrinking customer wallet, the restaurant industry will need this type of thoughtful operational execution to thrive.”
Craig K — Robotics were something to see though the details are still being worked out (food source, etc). On the kiosk side it was good to see Samsung kiosks adding accessibility finally. POS and mobile POS for employees and customers was EVERYWHERE. Payment systems as well. AI was overblown and almost trite. theroboburger.com
Recommended – Angela Diffly on Hospitality Technology wrapup. We contributed images and content.
Adam your robotic bartender — A dozen Adam robots have been deployed nationwide so far, in venues such as the Courtyard by Marriott in downtown Los Angeles, the Cloutea boba shop at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, and the Botbar Coffee chain. Adam also gets rented out for parties and conferences.A complete Adam with a custom setup table and equipment sells for $180,000, though Casella says they’re experimenting with other pricing models and partnerships.
How Restaurants Are Embracing Robots — All the big chain restaurants are testing and installing AI-infused robotics — mainly in the back of the house, but also in customer-facing roles, both tableside and at the drive-thru. We tend to think a lot of testing is going on, but that is about it.
Aniai is bringing a burger-cooking robot to restaurants with $12M — Aniai, a startup that has built a burger-grilling robot, Alpha Grill, said today it has raised $12 million, bringing its total raise to $15 million. The money will go toward launching its first manufacturing facility, Factory One, in South Korea. The firm will also be deploying a cloud-based AI software platform for the robot called Alpha Cloud. Robot adoption in the restaurant business is becoming popular as it can help restaurants address their high pain points like labor shortages, and rising wage issues. Robotics enables restaurants to save 30% to 70% of labor costs, and restaurants could replace more than 80% of restaurant positions with robots, according to a research report.
Raising the Bar: Empower Field at Mile High Secures Top Spot in Zippin’s Highest Sales per Event Award — Drink Mkt 103 is one of nine at the venue and has seen impressive sales since opening in 2019. This year, in partnership with Zippin, IDmission, and Aramark, the store further revolutionized the fan experience by integrating Digital ID Verification and eliminating manual ID checks for alcoholic purchases. In a world where efficiency and convenience reign supreme, combining checkout-free technology and digital identification proved to be a game-changer. Fans can zip through Drink Mkt 103 even faster than before, as evidenced by the store’s performance this year. The integration is now rolled out across all Zippin-powered stores at Empower Field.
Food Assembly — Chef Robotics Raises $14.75M To Automate Food Assembly in Commercial Kitchens. From Techcrunch: Rajat Bhageria tells TechCrunch that Chef distinguishes itself from the likes of Miso by focusing on food assembly, rather than cooking specifically. The company is also touting ChefOS, the underlying software driving its robot arm’s decisions. “[F]ood is very highly dimensional: depending on how you prep the ingredients (e.g., julienned onions vs chopped), cook the ingredients (e.g., sauteed, baked, broiled), store the ingredients (e.g., cooked, room temp, frozen), the material properties radically differ,” the company notes.
AI Tackles Workforce Shortage: Ai Jia Nongzuo’s Renovation for the Super-Aged Future June 12, 2023 — Thanks Barney Stacher!