Can a robot make a better, faster burger?
November 26, 2012
(Credit: Momentum Machines)
Momentum Machines says it’s created a new robot that can make about 360 burgers an hour in a 24-square foot area and that they plan to use it in “the first restaurant chain that profitably sells gourmet hamburgers at fast food prices.”
Why robots? Besides efficiency, Momentum Machines says they will offer custom meat grinds for every single customer. “Want a patty with 1/3 pork and 2/3 bison ground after you place your order and “gourmet cooking techniques never before used in a fast food restaurant, giving the patty the perfect char but keeping in all the juices.” Plus it’s more consistent and more sanitary, they add.
Finally: a geek-run burger joint — where you’ll hopefully be able to wear your Google glasses or Smart Glasses without being attacked.
Now if they just can figure out how to avoid cancer-causing free radicals from grilled food….
(Credit: Momentum Machines)
Comments (77)
by KAHN
MAN i love me a good burger
by gisi
honny soit qui maly pense
è una gabbia di matti , questa
anyway we don’t like burgers
happy new year
by Christian Gehman
They’ll never beat the In ‘n’ Out … or The Riverside Lunch in Charlottesville.
And one more thing … who’s going to clean the robots? and monitor them for bacteria count?
by Chrispium
Mexican immigrant robots? hehe
by Glen Lincoln
Yay! Fast, accurate, done spectacularly well, and no worker mistakes. I’ve been waiting on this dream since I was a kid.
by tom kersey
but then, how do we employ all the young folks with degrees in economics or psychology? as in: I have a Phd in economics, would you like fries with that?
by Marcos Marin
but then, also, how that “Falling Down” scene could ever happen?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeGk1bgBa7s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK332QsfYRc
by MrFriendly
As long as it can ensure that a roach can’t get in my burger, I’m all for it.
by GAUSS
Both innovative and disturbing.
by tim333
I’m sceptical it’ll be as good as Gormet Burger Kitchen. ( http://www.gbk.co.uk/menu/burgers/ ). I’ll have to try the burger
by Gorden Russell
“Now if they just can figure out how to avoid cancer-causing free radicals from grilled food….”
Just use plenty of ketchup on that char. It has lycopine, an antioxidant that protects against some cancers. Also, take along some supplements. Before going to the food court at the mall I load up my watch pocket with gel caps of flax seed and fish oil, plus tabs of vitamin C, calcium with vitamin D, and a baby aspirin…and of course I drink a couple of mugs of green tea before leaving the house.
Ya gotta do all this, simply because that char tastes so good with onions, pickles and ketchup.
Now if the engineers at Momentum Machines would put in a little spigot to add garlic powder and chili powder to the meat, you just might have enough antioxidants to counteract the carcinogens in the char.
Oh, yeah, and a stalk of celery on the side.
by olivier
of course you could simply avoid eating the carcinogens in / and the char …. ever though about this ??!!
by Editor
That gives me a million-dollar idea: non-carcinogenic char-boiled flavoring.
by Bri
Chacun a son gout! Alright, enough with the French. Love this crowd sourcing. America, builders of better burgers.
by Mr.X
@Bri: That’s English.That’s not French.That’s English.
by melajara
Anyway, de gustibus non est disputandum ;-)
by Bruce Wright
Not exactly English either. I’ve usually heard amalgams of French and English along those lines called “Franglais.”
by Mr.X
@Bruce: Ok.I was going by Webster’s online dictionary.Or so I thought.It has an entry, saying it is slaughtered French that’s in current English usage.
by Bruce Wright
It is in “current English usage” as a conscious (if corrupted) borrowing. There is no part of it that is, or ever has been, standard English.
by Mr.X
@Bruce: Well.I see it as many linguists would: descriptive.Non-standard English is still English.
Concerning Franglais: I only see English speakers use this :)
by Gorden Russell
“…non-carcinogenic char-boiled flavoring.”
That’s a serious idea, Angelica, you’ve got to talk to Ray about putting a chemist on something to take the carcinogens out of char.
by Marcos Marin
Except that all this down-regulates your endogenous production of antioxidants, the tea has neurotoxins, the flax seed has phytoestrogens (which incidentally fuel some cancers, but not the only problem), the fish oil being not a stable fat will inflammate your tissue, the vitamin D and calcium pills are next to useless and the baby aspirin will drill holes in your tissue letting toxic materials pass and lead to more inflammation, its hermetic effects might not even be worthy it. There is no escape human.
by Gorden Russell
How do you know all this stuff, Marcos? What about the onions, pickles, chili powder, ketchup, garlic and celery? Are they bad too?
by Gorden Russell
Hey Marcos, look what I found at Wikipedia:
“…it has been proposed that plants use the phytoestrogens as part of their natural defence against the overpopulation of the herbivore animals by controlling the male fertility…”
“Researchers are exploring the nutritional role of these substances in the regulation of cholesterol, and the maintenance of proper bone density…”
“Evidence is accruing that phytoestrogens may have protective action against diverse health disorders, such as prostate, breast, bowel, and other cancers, cardiovascular disease, brain function disorders and osteoporosis…”
This all looks pretty good to me. I’m too old now to want more children (except as grandchildren) and the doctor wants me to manage my cholesterol anyway. Also, I have been diagnosed with osteoporosis, and who doesn’t want to avoid prostate, breast, and bowel cancer?
by Marcos Marin
Let’s just say I had centuries to study it=P
– except for garlic and onions which depends on your glucose levels and sensitivity and your carbohydrate intake; Yes.
Answering next post: — there you go, another reason — cholesterol is awesome, I drink it just like water… and yes, another one to your list, water can kill you too you know, mwahahaha — nature tries to make the best of everything, oxygen peroxide is a powerful oxidant, yet extremely necessary of messaging between cells — full disclosure for possible conflict of interest of said “evidence”? anyways, if I decrease your testosterone to a grinding halt, you will probably be not only less stupid but less active too, preventing all sorts of problems;-)just one possible reason to think of explaining this “evidence”; in fact, I propose they decrease crime too,LOL — doesn’t kurzweil himself inject androgens now and then? — hehe I’m not trying to kill you dude, as much as I would like to.=)Of course,it’s only logical to try avoiding it, that’s why the more illogical papers, though they often try, rarely make it=)
by Gorden Russell
I’ve kept on searching, Marcos, and have found conflicting studies on neurotoxins and green tea.
One study was entitled: “Green tea polyphenols enhance sodium nitroprusside-induced neurotoxicity in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells.”
The other was:
“Green Tea Extract May Improve Health of Neurons”
Both papers seem to make a good case, both papers tested polyphenols, and both papers come from China. Now I don’t know who to believe.
by Marcos Marin
Exactly, there is a conflict of interest right there.
Same thing with the recent one mentioned here on the site, the one you cited(“[...]green tea does help[sic][...]“) the day after while I was making fun of it, alluding to neurotoxicity when joking about the unrelated day after article where the editor failed to copy and paste one of 2 possible sentence endings from the original, allowing the alzheimer/green tea joke, may you remember? (I could joke again now but almost everyone left already =) so no use of anxiety prevention through humor, you can obviously take it;-))
You kept on searching.. Great, try searching now for fluoride bioaccumulation on camellia sinensis leaves. It is proportional (linearly) to soil concentrations. And if by then you still want to keep on searching, you can look for another strong neurotoxin, Aluminum, this one will take your little search even deeper down the rabbit hole;-)which was something I also joked about previously here, on an article about pension funds collapse and how raining aluminum is not a good solution, lol.. good hunt.
by olivier
Melajara / Marcos …. you must have been part of the millions of American making ”funny” jokes about the French and the Irak war …. Still laughing about it ???!!!!
by Marcos Marin
You BET!
I’ve been doing dark jokes for centuries, I laugh every time one of those filthy human beings die gruesomely! You have no idea of the “jokes” I perpetrate EVERY — SINGLE — DAY. MWAHAHAAHAHA
But you are overreacting here on this so cozy warm website, dear olivier. People are criticizing and bringing the fact to public attention, even at such a small scale, to not let it be forgotten and as a just counter marketing at Mc Donalds’ “face”, so to speak.
Careful what you ask for, because you may as well be getting it…
by Mr.X
@Marcos:
Didn’t you claim to be a non-American!?
Typical.
by Marcos Marin
Always trying to play the Sherlock, right Mr.X.
Why don’t you explain to your audience how you got to such obviously blatant and true conclusion?
by Mr.X
@Marcos: Which conclusion!?
by Marcos Marin
Isn’t the sky blue, Mr.X?
by Mr.X
No.
by Marcos Marin
Starting one today on Coursera =) Isn’t that a coincidence? MWAHAHA
Too bad most of those in need of knowledge only suggest looking for it AFTER the fact…
by Mr.X
Marcos: Thanks.I consider taking it myself.Often going over material again/differently presented leads to deeper insights.
Anyway: You surely know that there is a nice latin name for answering rhetorical questions ;)
by Marcos Marin
Awesome! You’re welcome. Yep, I agree.
See you there;-)
heh, there is a latin name for everything! including stupid things=)but no, i dont know. How they call this one?
Ps.: isnt it strange how they moved our posts down here?lol maybe they got annoyed hahaha… but also, we had posts deleted up there…
by olivier
woaw … very interesting ”dear Marcos” …. well; actually pretty SAD. Anyway -have a fun filled joking day!
by Marcos Marin
You’re so SADier than thou, undear olivier. <– I'm already at it, haven't you noticed yet?
by Mr.X
@Always trying to play Watson, right Marcos.
The BurgerBot will help you to look exactly right, in case you don’t already.What a wonderful time to be alive!
by Charlie
Adios to burger flipper jobs at McDonald’s and Burger King and in and out etc. How many thousands of jobs will this robot destroy? How soon before robots take over all manual labor jobs? What then?
by Dillon
Better start learning how to fix robots : )
by Marcos Marin
and then the robots ‘who’ fixes other robots and then…
… damn you Gödel!!
by Gorden Russell
But Dillon, in six to ten years, the robots will be able to repair each other. They will be so cheap that they will be recyclable. Just throw the robot into the hopper and it will be ground up and printed back out as an improved model.
by Gorden Russell
What then, Charlie? Then there won’t be anybody left with money in their pocket to buy a burger at Mikkie-Dee’s…not unless the Congress passes a bill to levy taxes on these robots. They must be made to pay the Unemployment Insurance and Social Security taxes of the workers that were paying these taxes before they were thrown out onto the street.
Then the Congress has to revamp the entire Unemployment Benefit systems. Bennies can’t be allowed to run out after 26 or even 99 weeks. When robots take these jobs, these jobs will be gone forever.
When robots start running 3-D printers that churn out the pieces of new robots, and then start assembling the pieces, every repair shop will have them. Monroe Muffler and Cole Muffler and Firestone and Goodyear and the Sears Auto Service Center will all have robots in the service bays. The geeks and cashiers at Best Buy will be robots too.
But if you are already retired on Social Security, you just might have enough in savings to buy a robot maid/gardener/housekeeper/health care assistant at Staples or at the Kinko’s print shop.
But for everyone else, the Congress must make sure that Unemployment Benefits last until you reach retirement age.
Society will collapse unless Congress makes these robots pay these taxes. There will be no funds to run the government if these robots don’t pay taxes.
Have you seen my numbers posted here on other days that show that if a robot can print out a copier and another robot in just one day, then in 30 days you will have over a billion robots. They will become incredibly cheap, just a few percent over the costs of feed stock, electricity to run the robot and printer, and transporting everything to the mall.
It will be the robot apocalypse if people don’t start talking this up and turn this into a meme. You have to discuss this with everyone you know.
by Gabor
I can’t wait for the day…we won’t need forever unemployment benefits. They won’t need to tax anybody. All these robots will pretty much work for free (their energy and maintenance will be provided by other robots 24/7)…so in a sense we will be richer than ever. Products and services will be practically free. What do you need tax money for when your army creates itself and your government is controlled by a specialized AI?!? I know that you know this and I know that you’re worried about the in between time when we are not quite there yet (that is now). I think if we somehow get through the next 10-15 years then we are home free. Machines and (useful) robots will multiply to the billions, much faster then humans multiply. Which means we will have unlimited workforce in a relatively short time period. Remember machines can work 24/7 with occasional maintenance as opposed to we, humans, spend a third of our existence unconscious and another third with physical and mental “maintenance”. We are an unbelievably inefficient worker (physical or mental). So as soon as we reach the “knee” of the exponential curve our output (GDP) as a society will suddenly increase many times to it’s current level. The surplus will be the proof for people. Unfortunately, we are so set in our ways that, talking about it, trying to change people’s perception in advance is, well,l at your own risk. The least they wont believe you and say something like “yes, but machines will never be able to do what I do here”. Even if you “poke their eyes out” with examples they keep thinking that those are the limits to machine intelligence and dexterity and “look how they screw up things and now I need to fix it”. They completely ignore the fact that when humans put those things together they needed twice as many people to fix their mistakes. It’s hopeless. You are either “enlightened” or not. It must be in the genes!
by Gorden Russell
I like the way you think, Gabor, and you are right, it is the between times that I am worrying about. What I worry about most is that when the knee of the curve is reached, that there will be too many in Congress and in Business and Industry who still think in old-fashioned ways and won’t help the People along in making the change-over.
When the HUD and the Dept. of Agriculture have robots building houses for the homeless and growing food for the hungry, then an era of abundance will be at hand. But before we get to that point, there will be Tea Party Congressmen screaming cries of “Socialism” and “Class War.” In fact, it will take the prospect of a bloody uprising by the unemployed to bring us through to the era of abundance.
by Gabor
Yes, Gorden, they will fight tooth and nail but they will fail. I think (or rather hope) that as efficiency skyrockets due to replacing human workforce, the market will be flooded with cheap (but good quality) products. This process will devalue money (hyper^3 inflation). Guess what, money is the very source of the power for a Powerful Congress Person and this power will erode with the inevitable hyper inflation. Even “poor” congress persons are getting their power from money as they are elected by (and represent, if they want to keep their jobs) powerful, “moneyful” corporations (as opposed to popular belief that we the people put them in office.
The question is, don’t these powerful individuals see their own demise by building all these machines? I don’t think it’s out of ignorance, they just don’t have any choice if they want to stay competitive.
My punchline is that I’m not so much concerned about Corporations and Politicians but I’m concerned about the masses who will lose their jobs and yes will uprise if a massive “reeducation” is not achieved in the next decade or so. Hopefully, the internet is doing it’s job and the elite will help us out (one last time) as a smooth as possible transition is in their interest as well. If not, then we will need a really good hiding place. Good thing I have Citizenship from couple of different Continents. :)
On last thought, I’m trying to do my part, grabbing every opportunity to spread the “word” carefully. Like I said before, it’s easy to get a completely undesired reaction from people (especially when the “convincer” is not using his native language). Decades of negative propaganda and “set ways” are really hard to reason away, especially when things seemingly getting worse by the minute and everybody is looking to blame.
by Bri
This is still a floor mounted robot. Just wait till they have C3PO style ones. You ain’t seen nothing yet. Very soon now.
by Gorden Russell
C3PO will be the model used as cashier and counter help.
by trakk
I agree
Fast food industry has been one of the go to place for employment (temporary or otherwise) for the masses in times of economic slowdown and recession. Now it seems like there will be competition from machines even in these places.
by Gorden Russell
“Want a patty with 1/3 pork and 2/3 bison ground after you place your order…”
Hey! This machine won’t be Kosher! You can tell a goy invented it. If that “stamper” touches pork at all it can’t go on to touch anything that a practicing Jew or Moslem will eat. But then again, I don’t suppose the Orthodox go to fast food joints even now. I’ve never seen anybody with a payess at Burger King.
by Marcos Marin
Can be customized to deliver punch to face at 360/hour.
Currently available only to French fast food stores.
by snake0
Although they only punch android and robots, so it will punch itself in the face at 360 smacks/hour.
by Marcos Marin
lol.. yes, and cyborgs too =)
Mr. Ronald McDonald certainly “punched” himself in the foot there hehehe
Good idea, can we photoshop a creepy clown on this robot’s “face”/”cameras”?
by Jon
Looks promising!
Shame they misspelled information.
Sorry I had to be that guy.
by Bri
@Jon: what do you mean,” sorry I had to be that guy”.
by Marcos Marin
He obviously comes from a culture that considers offensive to correct people or even generally speak the truth, right Bri?
by Mr.X
@Marcos: You didn’t ask me, but no.
by Marcos Marin
Coming to the rescue of Bri again, Mr.X? What’s up with you two?
by Mr.X
Well, you are the one who makes unfounded claims just to tease Bri.Go figure what THAT might mean ^^
Ps: No need to be afraid.Bri and I don’t really like each other.
In that sense, Bri is free, for you.^^
Gl&hf
Ps: Bri dislikes me, too ^^
by Marcos Marin
Simple, it means you not only do not know what “unfounded” means but you also do not know what “tease” means. In fact that was an “unfounded” “tease” FROM Bri. And as I replied to him/her, I tease nobody.
Of course he dislikes you, you at least have SOME logic left to notice his blunders. And that’s the only reason this became an issue and we’re talking about it, because they were so annoyingly abundant!! What you may perceive as unfounded might simply be the loss of patience at declaring the obvious or even avoiding wasting energy with the hopeless task of explaining anything to anyone capable of such utterances. You didn’t see me losing hope on you so fast, have you? It took much much longer and thousands more words to arrive at that point, but, as any human being before and after, it is inevitable. So yes, gl&hf with your next post.
by Mr.X
“Simple, it means you not only do not know what “unfounded” means but you also do not know what “tease” means. ”
You said it was obvious that Jon’s cultural background let him to make that comment in such a way.This isn’t obvious at all.
Jon could for example have been scolded for correcting someone just some hours ago.Because of this, he phrased his usual corrections in another way.
“Of course he dislikes you, you at least have SOME logic left to notice his blunders.”
How ironic.We have a word for this: “Real Satire”^^
by Gorden Russell
That’s it, Mr. X. Maybe Jon just didn’t want to be accused of being a “Grammar Nazi.” This happens all over the web now when somebody points out that an article needed to be proofread. (reductio ad Hitlerum.)
by Mr.X
@Gordan: That’s it Gordon.You just proved my point.Thanks.
It was your friend who claimed otherwise.
by Mr.X
Ps: I wrote something like that, but my answer’s pending ;)
by Charlie
The guy that pointed out the misspelling of information.
by Bri
Lots of different ways to read that line. Everybody seems preoccupied with mistakes. Someday soon a computer will be writing these articles and they will be perfect. Won’t everybody be pleased???( it certainly didn’t bother me!)
by Gorden Russell
Switching the letter “o” for the letter “i” is the easiest mistake to make in the world. Anybody here ever been to a “filk sing?”
by melajara
At least, some well known person here could go back safely to the Champs Elysees McDonald’s, say before the end of the decade ;-)
by Editor
Chacun à son bête noir.
by olivier
chacun a sa bete noire :-)
by Editor
That too :)
by Mr.X
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GratuitousFrench
by Mr.X
Everyone knew that this would be invented in the USA.Now their culture gets to be automatized.Congratulations!
by Marcos Marin
HAHA, got here too late for the joke =) look at my comment above, it can be even worse…
by Marcos Marin
ps.: there were only jon and bris post when I wrote mine though…