More Fast Food Robotics

Have seen several food oriented robotics demonstrations lately. 

Why Restaurant Chains Are Investing in Robots and What It Means for Workers

CNBC, Amelia Lucas, December 27, 2022

This year brought a flurry of automation announcements in the restaurant industry, as it copes with staff shortages and higher labor costs. Automation solution providers say that robots are more consistent than overworked employees, and that artificial intelligence can improve the drive-thru process. Experts, however, say it will be years before robots pay off for companies or take the place of workers. More than a year and a half ago, McDonald's began testing software that could take drive-thru orders. At about two dozen test restaurants, the voice-ordering software had an accuracy in the low 80% range, well below the target of 95%. ... '

McD's Automation Plans

More on McD's automation efforts,  apparently the automation of everything but the food preparation.  Following closely.  

McD’s gets decidedly mixed reactions to its robot servers in RetailWire

Dec 27, 2022   by Tom Ryan

McDonald’s last week opened its first partially automated restaurant, with machines handling everything from taking orders to delivering the food. The opening sparked both positive and negative responses on social media.

McDonald’s said in a December blog post about the pilot in Fort Worth, “The features — inside and outside — are geared toward customers who are planning to dine at home or on the go.”

Inside, a delivery pick-up room enables couriers to retrieve orders “quickly and conveniently.” Customers can place their orders at kiosks and obtain them at a pick-up shelf. No seating is available.

Outside the restaurant are several parking spaces dedicated to curbside order pick-up, as well as designated parking spaces for delivery drivers. A separate “Order Ahead Lane” enables those who order early enough through the McDonald’s app to skip the traditional Drive Thru line and receive their orders via a conveyor belt.

Humans still prepare the food. Keith Vanecek, the franchisee operating the test restaurant, said, “The technology in this restaurant not only allows us to serve our customers in new, innovative ways, it gives our restaurant team the ability to concentrate more on order speed and accuracy, which makes the experience more enjoyable for everyone.”

While “considerably smaller” than a traditional McDonald’s restaurant, a McDonald’s spokesperson told The Guardian that staffing is comparable to that of a typical location. ... '

Robots Making Fries

 The Robots Are Here, and They Are Making You Fries

The Washington Post

Laura Reiley; Lee Powell

September 20, 2022

Fast-food restaurants are turning to robotic technology amid the prolonged labor shortage. Miso Robotic initially designed its Flippy robot to flip burgers, but made changes after restaurant executives said a more pressing need was for a robot that could handle the fryer station, where most workplace accidents happen. Fast-food chain Jack in the Box has installed a Flippy at its Chula Vista, CA, location at a cost of $5,000, plus $3,500 per month in rental fees. Miso Robotics also offers Skippy, a drink fulfillment robot, and Chippy, a robot that Chipotle plans to use for frying and seasoning tortilla chips. Mike Bell at Miso Robotics said, "We realized for a robotic solution to be a real solution for our customers, it had to have a really high customer return on investment, which meant it had to take a meaningful amount of labor off the table."  ... ' 

Miso Robotics at a Panera

Further goes automation of fast food and drink

Panera will test an AI coffee system from the makers of the Flippy burger bot   in Engadget

Miso Robotics' CookRight Coffee is designed to help restaurants run more efficiently.

Miso Robotics, the company that built a robot burger flipper in use at White Castle and a tortilla chip maker Chipotle is testing, has turned its attention to coffee. Its AI-powered CookRight Coffee system will monitor temperature, volume and time data. It will blend those metrics with predictive analytics to deliver cups of java. Miso suggests the system could help restaurants run more efficiently.

Panera Bread will be the first to test and evaluate CookRight Coffee before determining how to deploy the system. Miso says the product will nullify the need for workers to manually check the coffee urns and will brew fresh coffee at the right time. The system will also support Panera's Unlimited Sip Club plan, a subscription service that allows customers to drink as much coffee and tea as they want at the chain for $9 per month.

“When we announced the CookRight platform in 2021, we knew we could apply it to various stations at a restaurant as the product developed, and we saw an immediate need for it at the coffee station," Miso CEO Mike Bell said in a statement.   .... ' 

McD Drive-Through Efficiency with Voice Recognition

Have been following the use of drive-through and related efficient consumer interactions in the Pandemic.

IBM, McDonald's to serve up automated drive-thru lanes with strategic partnership

Under the agreement, IBM will acquire McD Tech Labs, which has been working to develop, test and deploy an automated ordering system using artificial intelligence-enabled voice recognition .... in Fox Business  .. '

Fast Food too Slow in Opening Dine-in?

 An example of semi-permanent change from COVID?   We certainly are doing far more drive through than before the pandemic.  Been discussing the dynamics for some time. 

Is fast food going too slow in reopening for dine-in business?  in Retailwire  by Matthew Stern

City by city and state by state, U.S. retailers are reopening as reported COVID-19 infections continue to drop. Fast food chains, however, have been moving more slowly.

While local restaurants have been opening up, chains including Popeye’s, McDonald’s, Starbucks and those owned by Yum! Brands have remained more focused on digital sales and limited in the full reopening of stores in key markets, according to Yahoo! Finance. Brands cite operating in accordance with CDC guidelines and local regulations, but are farther from across-the-board reopening than smaller restaurant operators.

Part of the hesitation may be found in the franchise model some of these brands operate under. McDonald’s franchisees in late May were insisting on staying closed despite the easing of local restrictions, according to a Bloomberg report. Some stated that they were doing well enough through drive-thrus and mobile ordering and had neither enough staff to reopen nor interested diners to justify reopening. The chain hopes to have all restaurants fully open by late August.  ... " 

Predicting Your Order

 Have been experiencing fast food faster over these months,  and also wondered how fast, precise and predictive it can be.  Here  quick look at some  examples.

.Drive-Throughs That Predict Your Order? Restaurants Are Thinking Fast

The New York Times, Julie Creswell, March 13, 2021

Many restaurants expect digital ordering and drive-throughs to remain key business channels, and some are testing artificial intelligence (AI) to predict and suggest personalized orders. McDonald's acquired Israeli AI company Dynamic Yield to boost sales via personalized digital promotions. Burger King is modernizing its drive-through with its Deep Flame AI system to suggest foods based on daily popularity, and testing Bluetooth technology to identify loyal customers and show their previous orders to calculate their probability of ordering the same items. Restaurant Brands International (RBI) hopes to deploy predictive personalized systems at more than 10,000 of its North American restaurants by mid-2022. RBI's Duncan Fulton envisions customers having "the ability to automatically reorder things and pay for the items at the board, which, ultimately, speeds up the window time, allowing you to collect your food and go on your way."  ... 

White Castle Fast Food Using Flippy Robot

Inevitable to see more of these robotic solutions for food preparation, here the most common example. 

White Castle Plans to Use Robot in More Locations

Forbes, By Lana Bandoim

The White Castle restaurant chain said it is expanding the use of the Flippy Robot-on-a-Rail (ROAR) system to more U.S. locations, after a successful test pilot in one establishment. Developer Miso Robotics said the robot can glide across multiple workstations on a rail, easing storage and use, while relying on artificial intelligence and machine learning to cook food. Miso said, "Capable of identifying current temperatures, predicting time remaining to meet consistency in taste perfection, and alerting staff of unsafe internal cooking temperatures, ROAR features powerful image processing and depth perception from Intel RealSense technology." White Castle intends to use Flippy as a kitchen assistant during night shifts.  .... ' 

Companies Trying to Predict Post Pandemic

Can Retail predict post pandemic?  In the car today we discussed how drive through fast food will exist after pandemic.  Two effects. Very large increase of drive-through during.   But also a large number of new customers being trained in this new kind of shopping/eating.  Our own experience: we had only very very rarely in many years, done drive through food,  but then in pandemic had done it often.    And would likely continue.  Behaviors like this will persist.  Delivery? 

Whole Foods CEO does not think online grocery will remain the norm post-pandemic: 'Food is different'

Daniel Roberts, Editor-at-Large, Yahoo Finance, September 17, 2020

Amid the pandemic, big retail names like Walmart, Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Best Buy, and Chipotle have all highlighted the surge they’ve seen in online shopping (or in the case of food chains, mobile ordering) and curbside pickup. Online grocery ordering and fulfillment has seen the same trend: Coresight Research in May predicted online grocery sales will surge more than 40% in 2020, after growing 22% in 2019. (Online grocery was already big for Walmart before the pandemic: Walmart U.S. president Greg Foran told Yahoo Finance in June 2019 that online grocery was creating a “halo effect” on the rest of Walmart’s business.)

The question now is whether these trends will continue on the same breakneck pace once the pandemic is behind us.

Many analysts think it will, including McKinsey retail partner Sajal Kohli, who told Yahoo Finance that BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store) is “exceptionally sticky” and that consumers have “discovered this newfound convenience and they will actually stick to curbside.”

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey isn’t convinced that will be the case for grocery specifically. ... "