Dishwashers have been around for decades, but whilst they have transformed the domestic kitchen, a commercial environment is a tougher proposition as the volume and throughput is so much higher, plus the process of clearing food trays and so on is much more complex.

British startup Cambridge Consultants aim to change that with a new AI-powered system, called Turbo Clean, which aims to automate much of the work.  The system is able to clear each customers’ tray using a combination of deep learning, machine vision and robotics.  This allows it to understand the contents of each tray, remove those items before loading them in either the appropriate waste bin or compartment of the dishwasher.

Doing the dishes

The technology was developed after a systematic analysis of the most time consuming yet commercially valuable aspect of kitchen work, with both staff and management alike pinpointing the process of clearing trays and washing dishes.

The team believe that the new system fundamentally changes the kitchen cleaning process, with a single tray able to be processed every six seconds.  The system was trained using thousands of images of trays to enable it to correctly identify food and crockery.

“It’s widely accepted that AI and robotics will impact almost every business. But it’s vital to understand both what is technically possible and what is commercially viable, to ensure that a business thrives through this time of technological revolution.” they explain. “Working with our client, we were able to design a system that uses a novel combination of technologies and to take them from initial discovery right through to the prototype ready for commercialization. We look forward to continuing our support in the future.”

We’ve seen various attempts to automate the cooking process, but this is one of the first to do so for cleaning in the kitchen.  Check out the video below to learn more about the project.