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8-36 t1_ir98vx9 wrote

Why the fuck are we retrofitting robot hands to cook fries is this like some 50s futurism fetish?

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GlassWasteland t1_ira28ql wrote

Because it is an iteration of the Flippy bot which is a generalized fast food cooking robot. This version Flippy 2.0 has been upgraded to be specialized in just french fries.

While they call this version 2.0 it really looks like a downgrade of the failed promise of the Flippy 1.0 version. Flippy 1.0 was supposed to do all this and replace all fast food cooks, but the environment it works in causes the hardware all kinds of problems. Fast food places are very dirty and all that grease causes failures in the hardware of Flippy 1.0.

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[deleted] t1_irajcjc wrote

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Xaero_Hour t1_irbkc6n wrote

We're at the point where the tech that goes into that is cheaper, more consistent, and reliable than hiring a person to do it, even if you account for maintenance. And it's not just here. The machines are coming for all of our jobs and instead of being like the Jetsons with 3-day 2-hour work weeks, it's allowing companies to lord it over us as a threat to keep wages down, hours up, overtime unpaid and their profits up.

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[deleted] t1_irbxobe wrote

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Xaero_Hour t1_irc7lrj wrote

The arm idea is most likely the easiest way to get it into existing establishments broad scale without having to redesign the kitchens (specifically the fryer bins) around a conveyor/basket setup individually. And fry stations are already dangerous, so the arm's making that better rather than worse. Grease burns hurt. Ask me how I know.

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[deleted] t1_ircaw49 wrote

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ZaxLofful t1_ircq68e wrote

As someone in the automation world (just. It deep fryers), I concur that this is overly complicated for no reason.

I have also worked in many fast food restaurants and the fryer is always in the worst place, even if this robot were meant to “fit into already existing kitchens” it would block off the entire kitchen and be a total hazard.

You would resident the kitchen no matter what, it might save on costs of a new fryer, but that’s about it.

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