The Moley fully-automated and integrated intelligent cooking robot should be ready by 2018!
(Moley kitchen robot)
In 2018, Moley will launch the world’s first fully-automated and integrated intelligent cooking robot—a robotic kitchen that has unlimited access to chefs and their recipes worldwide.
According to Mark Oleynik— CEO and Founder of Moley Robotics, the way this machine works is by specifying the number of portions, type of cuisine, dietary restrictions, calorie count, desired ingredients, cooking method, chef, etc. from the recipe library first. Then, with a single tap, you could choose your recipe, place the individual pre-packaged containers of measured, washed and cut ingredients (that you could order through Moley) on designated spots, and press “start” for the cooking process to begin.
Consisting of all the necessary cabinetry, appliances, utensils, and two fully articulated robotic motion capture system (which records each movement of the master chef while wearing special gloves with sensors), among other features, this kitchen could cook anything like a human chef in motion. Currently developing an automatic dishwasher facility, Oleynik foresees the robotic chef to be able to clean the kitchen surfaces after cooking as well.
(Moley kitchen robot demonstration)
Although there are other references I might choose, I've included this quote describing the Electric-Automatic Household Robot Cook from Ely's Automatic Housemaid by Elizabeth Bellamy, published in 1899:
The return mail brought me a reply stating that two Electric-Automatic Household Beneficent Geniuses had been shipped me by express. The letter enclosed a pamphlet that gave a more particular account of the E. A. H. B. G. than the circulars contained. My friend’s invention was shaped in the likeness of the human figure, with body, head, arms, legs, hands and feet. It was clad in waterproof cloth, with a hood of the same to protect the head, and was shod with felt. The trunk contained the wheels and springs, and in the head was fixed the electric battery. The face, of bisque, was described as possessing “a very natural and pleasing expression.”
I opened the oblong box, where lay the automatons side by side, their hands placidly folded upon their waterproof breasts, and their eyes looking placidly expectant from under their waterproof hoods.
“Now, which is Bridget, and which is Juliana — which the cook, and which the housemaid?”
This distinction was made clear by dial-plates and indicators, set conspicuously between the shoulders, an opening being cut in the waterproof for that purpose. The housemaid’s dial-plate was stamped around the circumference with the words: Bed, Broom, Duster, Door-bell, Dining-room Service, Parlor Service, etc. In like manner, the cook’s dial-plate bore the words that pertained to her department...
At this point a wild shout of mingled exultation, amazement and terror arose from below, and we hastened down-stall’s to find our son John hugging his elbows and capering frantically in front of the kitchen-door, where the electric cook was stirring empty nothing in a pan, with a zeal worthy a dozen eggs.
My eldest hopeful, impelled by that spirit of enterprise and audacity characteristic of nine-year-old boys, had ventured to experiment with the kitchen automaton, and by sheer accident had effected a working connection between the battery and the indicator, and the machine, in “going off,” had given the boy a blow that made him feel, as he expressed it, “like a funny-bone all over.”
“And served you right!” cried I. The thing was set for an hour and a half of work, according to the showing of the dial-plate, and no chance to stop it before I must leave for my office. Had the materials been supplied, we might have had breakfast; but, remembering the red-lettered “Caution,” we dared not supply materials while that indefatigable spoon was gyrating in the empty pan.
“My dear,” I sighed, “there’s no way to stop it. We’ll have to wait for the works to run down. I must call Harrison’s attention to this defect. He ought to provide some sort of brake.”
I now discovered that I was hungry. “If that Fiend in the kitchen were only at work about something substantial, instead of whipping the air into imaginary omelettes!” I groaned.
“Never mind,” said my wife; “I’ve a pot of coffee on the kerosene stove.”
Bless her! She was worth a thousand Beneficent Geniuses, and so I told her.
I thought that the method of teaching the robot is also important; fans of science fiction writer Robert Heinlein may recall the description of using waldoes to do remote training from his story of the same name published in 1942.
Readers might also enjoy these tales of robotic chefs of the near future:
Robotic FuA-Men Fully Automated Ramen Restaurant
Check out both the story and the linked comment; this robotic kitchen uses two robots that engage in manzai - a kind of comedic interplay - when not cooking!
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