Burgers are big business. Americans eat nearly 50 billion a year. But they’re also a dangerous business. Few kitchen jobs lead to as many burns as burger flipping.
Now, CaliBurger is rolling out a robot flipper called Flippy in 50 of its restaurants in a bid to tackle the problem.
David Zito, the CEO of Miso Robotics, the firm behind Flippy, told TechCrunch: “We focus on using AI and automation to solve the high pain points in restaurants and food prep.
“That’s the dull, dirty and dangerous work around the grill, the fryer, and other prep work like chopping onions. The idea is to help restaurants improve food quality and safety without requiring a major kitchen redesign.”
As they were designing Flippy, each of Miso Robotics’ employees went to work as grill chefs in Caliburger, which co-founded the robotics firm.
If Flippy takes off, kitchen jobs could be the latest in a long line of roles set to be replaced by robots over coming years.
And Flippy isn’t the only robot looking for work in the hospitality industry. In January, Chinese firm Bubblelab revealed a robot barista.