One of the many firms trying to automate food preparation – Miso Robotics, yesterday announced that its kitchen robot, codenamed Flippy Robot-on-a-Rail (ROAR), is now available for commercial usage.

Going by the final design of the robot, it is capable of cooking up to 19 different food items, without interfering with other people.

ROAR’s AI systems have been trained to identify a wider range of fry items, and it can now dunk more things into hot oil than ever before. The list of food ROAR has been trained to make includes: Chicken tenders, Chicken wings, Popcorn shrimp, French fries, Tater tots, Potato wedges, Hash browns, Onion rings, and Waffle fries.

According to a report compiled by VentureBeat, the improvements to ChefUI, Miso’s software, is aimed at assisting staff with workflows through a dashboard displayed on a 15.6-inch touchscreen mounted to the robot.

According to the Verge, the robot uses machine learning to identify foodstuff, and also uses a camera array (which includes a 3D depth-sensing cam from Intel and a thermal camera) to navigate its environment. A robotic arm then wields a spatula and grabs baskets full of food to fry.

The Intel depth sensor also enables ChefUI to identify food and temperatures while learning to re-classify new foods introduced to ROAR.

VentureBeat reported Miso president and chairman, Buck Jordan, to have said:

“We have also added more cameras and sensors, to enhance our computer vision capabilities to drive more efficient operational workflows for operators. We can now track inventory, down to the chicken nugget, in the back of the house … And we have sped up the learning process for Flippy to scale menus — as quickly as 30 minutes in some cases.”

The company has decided to release the machine for commercial usage, with the price starting at “around $30,000.”

Miso Robotics reportedly plans to bring the cost down to $20,000 over the next year. The company is also offering the option to hire Flippy ROAR for $1,000 a month, a fee which includes maintenance and upgrades.

As COVID-19 has brought about declines in business, and inevitably placing strains on the hospitality segment, Miso believes that having robots work alongside human workers, can cut costs, while improving efficiency and overall safety.

The company claimed to have made tremendous success in the previous year, serving more than 15,000 burgers and more than 31,000 pounds of chicken tenders.