R2-D-Chew: robot chef imitates human eating process to create tastier food

The culinary robots are here. Not only to distinguish between food which tastes good and which doesn't, but also to become better cooks. A robot chef designed by researchers at Cambridge University has been trained to taste a dish's saltiness and the myriad of ingredients at different stages of chewing – a process imitating that of humans. It is a step above current electronic testing that only provides a snapshot of a food's salinity. Replicating the human process, researchers say, should result in a tastier end product. "If robots are to be used for certain aspects of food preparation, it's important that they are able to'taste' what they're cooking," said Grzegorz Sochacki, one of the researchers, from Cambridge's department of engineering.