The world of robotics never ceases to amaze as they are doing unexpected things and complete these tasks remarkably well.
From manufacturing to cooking to taking care of homes, we are getting closer to a point in which there will one day be a robot for almost everything!
Over the past year I've written an incredible number of articles focused on new developments in robotic technology. I'm deeply fascinated with this subject and in addition to AI and blockchain, I find robotics to be one of the most exciting fields in technology hands down.
In the process of doing research for my next tech article I usually review topics of past articles and run a list of keywords and run them through google to scan news and get a good picture of what developments have taken place in a particular field.
Sometimes I hit the jackpot and other times I'm disappointed because there's just nothing big and juicy to take a bite out of. Sometimes you win and other times it's as dull as watching a dustball roll across a dusty valley in the wild west...
There is an incredible amount of time, money and effort being placed into the field of robotics as we move into the 2020s. The things that are being done with robots would be unfathomable just a decade ago. They can walk, talk, manufacture, clean and even provide consolation in times of need.
Sometimes what I find is sensational and other times its less than extraordinary but in today's article I'd like to discuss two new robots that certainly had my attention as I tried to grasp their purposes and how they manage to complete their tasks. So without further delay let me tell you about a robot that is filling bellies in San Francisco, CA.
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Image Source: The Verge
There's a new restaurant called Creator which is located on the ground floor of an office building on downtown San Francisco’s Folsom Street. The restaurant is modern outfitted with beautiful wooden communal tables and high white stools. On one end of the room you can find a bookshelf full of hand-picked culinary books against the wall and modern light fixtures overhead.
But the other side of the room is where a beast of modern convenience lives. This beast consists of two large machines each the size of a small car form a 90-degree angle around a center counter. This contraption has been described as giving the whole space a retro-futurist aesthetic like something straight out a the popular cartoon of the 80s, 'The Jetsons.'
But let me delve deeper into the tech and what it's designed to do... The two machines exist between glass casings and have all the ingredients they need in cylindrical tubes, to facilitate the Creator’s burger-making robots.
It is a 14-foot device with around 350 sensors and 20 microcomputers. Its reason for existing is simple, its designed to make the freshest, locally sourced cheeseburger that $6 can get someone in America’s most expensive city.
According to the recent article published in the Verge, the author said after getting a taste of the goods they could confirm it was the best-tasting burger for the money they had ever had.
“We wanted to design a device that meets nature where it is, and not make food conform to a robot,” CEO Alex Vardakostas tells The Verge in an interview. “We didn’t want something that would make one kind of burger. We look at this like a platform for recipes, and we wanted as much culinary creativity as possible.”
We are looking at a new paradigm of robots creating and serving in food. The world's first world countries will most certainly embrace this paradigm as costs continue to soar and human labor simply can no longer compete with the quality / speed and accessibility of meals powered by robotic contraptions.
Is this a good thing? I'm not so sure. What I can predict is that there will be a premium for human prepared or food served by a human in the future as this new paradigm is unavoidable.
Developing nations will take much longer to come to this point but they will get there at some point as well.
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Image Source: The Verge
Creator was formerly known as Momentum Machines, but if you think about a restaurant the last thing you want to be thinking about is the robot that will be making your food!
The Creator is just one of many when it comes to automated restaurants. This new breed of restaurants mixes industry software, robotics, and artificial intelligence skills with top-tier culinary expertise.
It is said that these restaurants will only be trying to automate the portion of the restaurant experience that can be done better, faster, and be more cost efficient with machines but when have we ever stopped as a species from going one step further?
Creator has joined a list of robotic restaurant companies which include San Francisco-based quinoa bowl chain Eatsa, pizza-delivery company Zume in Mountain View and others.
But why hasn't this technology been embraced more by the masses. I have my suspicions but according to Eatsa CEO, Tim Young it is simply about positioning.
“It’s not that people are catching up with this type of model. It’s that this model is catching up with the way people and society are tending to interact with companies,” says Eatsa CEO Tim Young.
One may say that Eatsa is simply too cold, too inhuman to accompany such an important and human function like eating a meal.
It is important to note that the Eatsa experience has no use for human beings or at least it doesn't present the involvement of human beings whatsoever as customers order from an iPad, food is prepared partially by automated machines and partially by humans in the kitchen before being placed into mechanized cubbies a customer opens with the tap of a finger on the glass.
Image Source: Business Insider
But enough about food and the removal of the human element from it specifically. I'd like to turn your attention to another robot that is turning heads and feeding plants!
There's a new robot named Hexa that can move a plant in and out of shade and stomps when it needs watering.
Tianqi Sun, CEO of robotics firm Vincross, came up with the idea to mod one of his robots to care for a succulent that it carries on its head. I'm completely amazed. Out of all the cool robots I've seen this year coming out of the woodwork this may just be the coolest of all!
This small Hexa, crab-like looking robot, goes for $949 and is a cool way for people to have a chance to experiment with robotics.
Tianqi said in his post that he was inspired by a dead sunflower and it was the reason in which he decided to make the Hexa. "The dead flower sat in a place that was always in a shadow. I had no idea how it ended up there or why it died - whether it was because of the lack of sunshine or water - but it was just there, and it was dead. I thought, if it could move a little bit, take a 30-feet walk out of the shadow to where the other sunflowers were, it would have lived healthily. But it didn't."
Well this is the type of robot I could support.
The type that truly helps the living, encourages growth and supports the weak. When we use technology in the pursuit of what is good and right, life gets a little better. Lets keep developing and building upon it with that goal in mind shall we?
Do you feel comfortable going to a restaurant fully controlled by robots from pan to plate?
Do you think taking the humanity out of the food would make it any less enjoyable or delicious?
Thanks for reading.
Authored by: @techblogger
In-text citations sources:
Why you should let a robot cook your next meal - The Verge
This little robot moves in and out of the sun to care for a plant that lives on its back - Business Insider
Image Source:
Futurity
LaserFocusWorld
This one is also picking up steam
Damn, nice find! That made me hungry!
this is very informative and intersting post.
Waoh, I'm blown away and feeling famished
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Hexa could be the ideal answer to our household's unbroken record of plant murder by neglect.
It's animated distress signals would eventually condition us to care for our greenery without prompting. Hexa seems like a relatively low-tech product that could eventually be priced within an average consumer's budget -- once meeting its R&D costs and going into mass production.
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