On 1 April, the same day California's new 20 hourly minimum wage for fast food workers went into effect, a new restaurant opened in north-east Los Angeles that was conspicuously light on human staff. CaliExpress by Flippy claims to be the world's first fully autonomous restaurant, using a system of AI-powered robots to churn out fast food burgers and fries. A small number of humans are still required to push the buttons on the machines and assemble the burgers and toppings, but the companies involved tout that using their technology could cut labor costs, perhaps dramatically. "Eat the future," they offer. I visited CaliExpress last week to find out what an all-American lunch served with a side of existential dread tastes like.

Burger fans in Pasadena, California will soon get to taste the future of fast food: a patented, AI-powered, short-order-cooking robot named Flippy. Flippy's makers said the new dining spot will be'the world's first operating restaurant where both ordering and every single cooking process are fully automated.' In addition to Flippy, responsible for deep frying chicken nuggets and French fries, a fellow'BurgerBot' will be grilling up patties, and a biometric payment system, PopID, will take customers' orders. While Flippy got its first job in the fast food industry back in 2017, serving at 50 CaliBurger restaurants after training, the new'CaliExpress by Flippy' will be the first time the rail-mounted mechanical arm will get to work with more of its own kind. Holding company Cali Group -- which owns Miso Robotics, the firm behind Flippy -- said it hoped the new CaliExpress will'inspire the next generation of kitchen AI and automation entrepreneurs' by offering educational tours and robotics exhibits.

Today, Miso Robotics – the company transforming the restaurant industry with robotics and intelligent automation – launched in the UK by bringing its flagship product, Flippy 2, to a Midlands branch of one of the largest quick-service restaurant (QSR) brands in the world. In parallel to its move to the UK, Miso Robotics extended its Series E round and will now take investment reservations from folks in the region – targeting to raise £1.5 million in capital via European crowdfunding site Crowdcube. Flippy 2, a robotics solution that can independently do the work of an entire fry station, has proven it can improve operations in QSRs by decreasing order-to-delivery time, while increasing food consistency and creating a better working environment for human team members. Flippy is able to manage fry stations, which frees up human staff members to be redeployed and focus on other tasks in the kitchen and restaurant that are more fulfilling, such as interacting with customers in the drive-thru or at the register. With the UK takeaway food delivery market growing from £10.5 billion to £13.3 billion between 2021 and 2022, the industry is facing an employment gap that Flippy can help fill – especially with nearly 150,000 unfilled posts in the hospitality sector in the UK at present.

CHICAGO and SAN FRANCISCO--Grubhub is now offering orders delivered via a robot on college campuses across the U.S. The food-delivery company is partnering with Starship Technologies, an autonomous delivery service, to provide the robot deliveries. The service is available at the University of Kentucky, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Wayne State University, Southern Methodist University and Fairfield University. Grubhub says the robot deliveries will be available at multiple other college campuses later this year. More than 170,000 students will have access to robot deliveries across these campuses, says Grubhub. Starship's robots offer deliver at over 25 schools across the U.S. through its global fleet of over 2,000 robots.

Restaurants have been struggling with labor shortages since the worst days of the pandemic, and the situation doesn't seem to be getting any better. After employees quit in droves and millions of restaurants shut down and laid off their entire staff, people seem to have found other ways to earn a living. Long waits, slow service, and disappointing meals. While there may not be a ton that robots can do to help at traditional sit-down restaurants, they're quickly moving in to fast food and fast-casual restaurants. Miso Robotics' Flippy, initially debuted in 2017 to flip burgers at a California fast food chain, got hired at 100 White Castles earlier this year (with expanded capabilities!).

Nala Robotics introduced the launch of Pizzaiola, a totally autonomous pizzeria robotic that may prep salads and prepare dinner pizzas, burgers, wings and pasta. The 7-axis robotic chef operates in a 12′ by 12′ area. Pizzaiola makes use of synthetic intelligence (AI) and machine studying to exactly replicate pizzeria-style meals. The robotic is ready to prepare dinner as much as 50 pizzas an hour, with 35 completely different decisions of toppings and cheeses, 5 dough sorts and 4 completely different sauces. The system is provided with pure language processing options, so it may possibly reply to voice menu orders.

Unraveled, chaotic meals could be a thing of the past for burrito lovers thanks to a group of engineering students from Johns Hopkins University and their lunch-saving invention. Dubbed'Tastee Tape', the invention is simply edible sticky tape designed to hold a burrito together while it's being eaten. 'Tastee Tape allows you to put full faith in your tortilla and enjoy your meal, mess-free,' said Tyler Guarino, who led the project. Unraveled, chaotic meals could be a thing of the past for burrito lovers thanks to a group of engineering students from Johns Hopkins University and their lunch-saving invention. Dubbed'Tastee Tape', the invention is simply edible sticky tape designed to hold a burrito together while it's being eaten The team tested a'multitude' of ingredients and combinations before settling on a final recipe.

It's the go-to fast food restaurant for Mexican fans, and now Chipotle has announced its latest employee – a robot chef called Chippy. Chippy will be tasked with making Chipotle's famous tortilla chips, using artificial intelligence to perfect the chain's exact recipe. 'Our goal is to drive efficiencies through collaborative robotics that will enable Chipotle's crew members to focus on other tasks in the restaurant,' said Curt Garner, Chief Technology Officer at Chipotle. Chippy (pictured at the back of this test kitchen) will initially be tested at Chipotle's innovation hub in Irvine, California, before being integrated into a restaurant in Southern California later this year Chippy is trained to replicate Chipotle's exact recipe – using corn masa flour, water and sunflower oil to cook chips to perfection, season with a dusting of salt, and finish with a hint of fresh lime juice. 'It was imperative that the technique remained the same so customers receive delicious, craveable chips every time,' Chipotle said.

Chipotle announced on Wednesday that it is testing out an alternative way to make its tortilla chips using an AI-powered robot named "Chippy." The creation of the robot is intended to help businesses run more efficiently and to help employees not have to do mundane tasks. "We are always exploring opportunities to enhance our employee and guest experience," Curt Garner, chief technology officer at Chipotle, said in a statement. "Our goal is to drive efficiencies through collaborative robotics that will enable Chipotle's crew members to focus on other tasks in the restaurant." Chippy is capable of working right beside other employees in the back kitchen.

You can count burger-flipping robots as one pandemic innovation that's here to stay. White Castle announced today that it will be bringing Flippy 2, a robot chef that can essentially perform the same tasks as a team of fry cooks, to 100 more locations this year. This amounts to roughly a third of White Castle restaurants nationwide, so it's likely Flippy may become a permanent addition to this burger chain's workforce. Last fall the burger chain first teamed up with Miso Robotics, the makers of Flippy, to launch a pilot program in its Chicagoland location. The company then unveiled Flippy 2, the latest iteration of the chef robot, back in November.