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I know we joke a lot about how unintelligent fast food workers are, but that joke just became a lot more serious.
A new burger-flipping robot has been invented by Miso Robotics and it raises the question of converting the fast food industry to a fully automated system. Flippy, as the robot is called, flips burgers (shocker).
The robotic arm includes a hollow hockey puck at the end of it that is used to scoop and flip burgers back onto the grill. The whole thing would be a lot more impressive if it didn’t give me PTSD flashbacks to Terminator. Check out Flippy in action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEfNsyBL6LI
Once the burgers are done, Flippy plates those bad boys and lets a puny human finish the job with toppings and whatnot. The goal is to improve human safety in the workplace by giving the “dangerous” jobs to machines (giving them a perfect reason to overthrow us down the road). Flippy can also be programmed to help with prep, plating, and frying. Did we learn nothing from Westworld?
Flippy is a mobile device, stationed on a cart that us two-legged humans can push around. But will mainstream fast food chains be interested? McDonald’s and Burger Kind have passed on mechanic help in the past. If an employee burns themselves or is out sick, the manager can just call a replacement. But what are they supposed to do if Flippy breaks down and no one in-house is trained on the grill?
We know humans love robots and especially love convenience and ease. But is Flippy really the future of the restaurant industry or just a cool video to watch?
