How They Made: World’s First Cheeseburger Robot

Make: Community ^ | January 8, 2020 | Anonymous

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It’s San Francisco, so naturally there’s some controversy. Burgers are the number one segment of restaurant food, ripe for disruption by robotics, and the VCs are pouncing. Robots might take away fast-food jobs, or create better ones, so the labor activists are activating.

But today I just want to understand how they made it. How two young engineers could invent a complicated culinary robot that makes cheeseburgers from scratch. Really good ones.

I’m on my second visit to Creator, the world’s only robotic hamburger restaurant. Since opening doors in September 2018, it has built a rep for quality and innovation, thanks in part to its fun-to-watch robot and its tourist-trod location next to San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center.

But the real secret sauce is the small team of makers who overcame technical setbacks and ridicule to create a single, integrated robot that makes the freshest burger ever served. And for just 6 bucks! Which even a tourist knows is unheard of in San Francisco.

Everything in a Creator burger is prepared to order in a way that’s never been done — beef freshly ground 20 seconds before it is precision grilled by artificial intelligence; whole buns automatically split, buttered, and toasted; veggies precision sliced and cheese shredded the instant before they meet the robo-toasted bun. And yes, it’s delicious, thanks to quality ingredients and gourmet techniques and seasonings.

Today the burger bot team includes alums from Tesla and Google, Berkeley, Stanford, and Caltech, Chez Panisse and Fat Duck. But it started with two California kids barely out of college: a self-taught roboticist with a vision for the future of fast food, and a trained mechanical engineer who came to trust in that vision. I want to hear how they created the culinary equivalent of landing a moon rocket on a robot barge.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

This is an amazing story of American genius and hard work to bring to market something you really believe in. It's a great story of a Greek Immigrant moving to the U.S. and starting a burger joint in Southern California, marrying an Iranian immigrant fleeing the 1979 revolution in Iran, having a son and the son going on to be an entrepreneurial genius. He has a dream, many people tell him "It can't be done; you're nuts; give it up" but he sticks with it and builds promising prototype robots. He wins venture money and hires a brilliant team from star companies. The founder was making regular 800 mile round trips from SoCal to Menlo Park, CA to use the original Maker Shop in Menlo Park (since out of business).

It is really an inspirational article and gives the lie to all those complainers who say "The American Dream is gone." There is opportunity everywhere you look.

If you are into stories of entrepreneurialism, genius, hard work, mechanical engineering, robotics, microcontrollers, culinary arts, and stick-to-it tenacity, this is a good story for you.

The founder started building his first prototype nearly a decade ago. The amazing thing is the $15/hour push took off in that decade. With restaurants laying off workers all over the country because of government-mandated minimum wage, this company probably has a bright future. Talk about being at the right place at the right time! Who could have foreseen that leftist agitation would create the $15/hour minimum wage and wipe out hundreds of thousands of restaurant jobs?

P.S. If all you can do is complain about California and San Francisco, take your endless and incessant whining elsewhere. Don't ruin this excellent article with your Democrat-style carping.

Want algorithms with that? The Creator robot is made of a dozen-plus modules, 20 Linux computers, and 350 sensors, each playing its part in an impressive culinary choreography.

A Bun conveyor: Pneumatic piston, laser sensors, and control algorithm push whole brioche buns single file into the …

B Bun slicer: Sensors detect bun, then servos pull wood block down to push bun through oscillating blade. Whole buns stay fresher than pre-sliced, don’t need preservatives.

C Vertical toaster: Butters the bun heel and crown, then camshaft-operated paddles press them onto the two-sided vertical griddle, and scoot them along to the …

D Case handler: Vacuumplucks a paper clamshell box off the stack and places it on butterfly belt, where it catches the toasted bun.

E Butterfly belt: Key to moving the burger down the line and reading its position at all times. Unlike ordinary conveyors, any portion of this belt can move independently.

F Saucer: First stop inside the refrigerated assembly line. 15 different condiments are squirted by a Cartesian X-Y sauce head similar to a plotter.

G Veggie slicers: Pickles, tomato, and onion are sliced fresh onto bun heel.

H Lettuce portioner: Pre-shredded butter lettuce is the only part of this burger not cut to order seconds before you eat.

I Cheese shredder: Grates two types of cheese directly onto bun crown. Load cells in receiving cup measure portion to nearest gram.

J Cheese melter: Like an intense heat gun. Initially had noise and vibration issues, solved with mounting solutions from automotive industry.

K Seasoner: Pneumatic puffer blows spices onto burger or bun, depending on recipe. Custom acrylic hoppers with 12 seasonings are rotated into position by proprietary gearing system.

L Grinder: Custom built, refrigerated unit grinds marinated brisket and chuck fresh to order — no oxidation — and delivers it to the …

M Patty former: Secret technology, inspired by chef Heston Blumenthal’s technique, aligns the cut direction from the grinder vertically with your bite direction, for the tenderest bite. Detects portion amount, then briefly smashes patty for optimal sear, and releases to keep it juicy.

N Induction grill: Double electric contact griddles cook the patty top and bottom simultaneously, 40% faster than single grills, using 11 thermosensors and AI machine learning algorithms. No two burgers are cooked exactly alike.

O Triple air filtration: No grease, smoke, or smell — only warm air comes out.

P Robo spatula: Scoops patty from grill onto bun. A visiblelight proximity sensor alerts the staff that your Creator burger is complete.

[nickcarraway]

How did they solve the pickle matrix?

[nickcarraway]

Hamburger Earmuffs

[Spruce]

I gotcher 15 dollars an hour right here!

[Retrofitted]

You can’t see it or hear it, but I am applauding and standing for this device, its creator, and you for posting this.

Cheers!

[VanDeKoik]

Literally...Cheeseburger-Cheeseburger-Cheeseburger-Cheeseburger-Cheeseburger-Cheeseburger....

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks. This is such a great story of American exceptionalism and spirit! I love it!

[Blue Highway]

I thought this was the same robot burger flipper that debuted about the same time as this. This is way more revolutionary and almost like a fully automated burger assembly line. Flippy, the robotic burger flipper was just a robotic arm flipping burgers.

[cgbg]

Hopefully they go national—sounds great...

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It does sound great — they say in the article that electric induction grilling saves a huge amount of energy because the gas grille is not on all day with or without food on it and they can control it more precisely for a better burger.

[Secret Agent Man]

I’m for being efficient without massive work to do so. This nicely fits my crieteria.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Yeah, the labor involved is onion and tomato prep, loading ingredients, cleaning and maintenance. It’s the perfect substitution of capital for labor.

[csvset]

$6.00 !?! Sold. I’d like to taste one, sounds delicious. Thanks for posting this story.

[SanchoP]

Adapting technology from other industries,fries and onion rings should be fairly simple. (I’m thinking air frying.)

[Moonman62]

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TBnwh7U1AU

[Dr. Pritchett]

I can’t believe the unions aren’t all over this! There should be laws preventing the design of robots that do anything a human can do. And a $50 minimum wage !

/s

[Theoria]

[dp0622]

You can’t see it but i’m laying on the couch with my shirt barely covering my gut while I eat a slice of pizza and drink diet orange crush AND I clapped for a few seconds after reading this article :)

I guess what the other guy said was better. :)

[Bitman]

I guess all those burger flippers will just have.to learn how to code now.

[bobby.223]

Not sure Nick but it is gonna be a hilarious video when a Burger ‘Bot shorts out, (or is hacked), and attacks his ‘Bot pals by throwing pickles, mustard and patty slices at ‘em! And if some 300lb. ghettopottamus happens to be at the counter, she will get into the battle also!