I’ve written a few times about the growing capabilities of robots to cook meals.  DARPA, for instance, have been working hard on developing machines with culinary capabilities, whilst a startup called Bryce Kitchen have developed a completely automated kitchen.

The project, which was a recent winner of the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, offers a stove, fridge, dishwasher and chef, all in one automated unit.  It contains a range of sensors that are capable of ensuring the right ingredients are included in just the right amounts.  It can then cook your food at the right temperature, and for the right time, to ensure a beautiful meal comes out the other side.

Automated BBQs

Taking this kind of technology outside is a new grilling machine that goes by the name BratWurst Bot.  The device, which was developed for the Stallwächter-Party, allows guests to order their food via a tablet device.

The Bot then goes about its stuff, grilling the sausage to order, all whilst a chef based avatar interacts with guests.  The ‘chef’ turns each sausage to prevent it being burnt, and serving them up when they’re ready.

The device performed this via a couple of RGB cameras and an algorithm was used to identify the sausages on the grill.  The machine utilized machine learning to tell when the sausages were the right color to signify that they’re ready for serving.

Suffice to say, the machine was little more than a party trick, but the fact that it served up over 200 sausages without any human intervention highlights the promise of the technology.

Check out the video below to see Bratwurst Bot in action, and let me know your thoughts in the comments.