{"id":3398,"date":"2022-08-02T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/singularityumexicosummit.com\/?p=3398"},"modified":"2022-08-02T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T15:00:00","slug":"flippy-the-fast-food-robot-just-got-hired-in-100-restaurants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/en\/flippy-the-fast-food-robot-just-got-hired-in-100-restaurants\/","title":{"rendered":"Flippy the Fast Food Robot Just Got Hired in 100 Restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Before the pandemic started (ah, those glorious days\u2026) a collective panic was mounting over&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/singularityhub.com\/tag\/automation\/\">automation<\/a>&nbsp;and robots gradually&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/singularityhub.com\/2019\/07\/22\/will-robots-take-our-jobs-careful-its-a-trick-question\/\">replacing workers<\/a>&nbsp;in various fields, or \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/singularityhub.com\/2016\/12\/13\/if-robots-steal-our-jobs-a-universal-basic-income-could-help\/\">stealing our jobs<\/a>,\u201d as the common refrain went. These worries haven\u2019t subsided two years later, but they\u2019re being countered by severe and largely unexpected labor shortages across multiple sectors of the economy. One of the industries that\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/businessinsider.mx\/record-high-restaurant-hotel-workers-quit-in-november-labor-shortage-2022-1\/?r=US&amp;IR=T\">struggling most<\/a>&nbsp;is restaurants. While we may still encounter automation-related unemployment problems down the road, right now it seems robots are lending a much-needed hand in food service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of these robots is none other than Flippy,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/singularityhub.com\/2017\/03\/08\/new-burger-robot-will-take-command-of-the-grill-in-50-fast-food-restaurants\/\">initially debuted<\/a>&nbsp;in 2017 to flip burgers at a California fast food chain. Since then&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/misorobotics.com\/\">Miso Robotics<\/a>, Flippy\u2019s maker, has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/singularityhub.com\/2020\/11\/06\/flippy-the-fast-food-robot-just-went-commercial-and-its-selling-like-crazy\/\">expanded the bot\u2019s<\/a>&nbsp;capabilities, creating a version that can cook chicken wings, fries, and other greasy delights. This week also brought a significant expansion to Flippy\u2019s presence as White Castle&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/misorobotics.com\/newsroom\/white-castle-expands-partnership-with-miso-robotics-to-install-flippy-2-in-100-new-locations\/\">announced plans<\/a>&nbsp;to install the robot at more than 100 restaurants this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>White Castle was the first restaurant chain to significantly invest in Flippy, piloting the robotic assistant in 2020. The chain gave feedback about the robot to Miso, and the company put out a second iteration called Flippy 2 last November. This new robot can independently do the work of an entire fry station: its AI-enabled vision identifies foods, picks them up, and cooks them in fry baskets designated for that food specifically. The bot then moves cooked items to a hot-holding area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"The Flippy 2 Restaurant Robot Cooks Food\" width=\"1020\" height=\"574\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l4WZegFRaaY?start=16&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of jobs being taken by robots, working a frying station seems like one we should hand over pretty readily; standing over boiling-hot oil is monotonous and, depending how much attention you\u2019re paying and how steady-handed you are, can be dangerous. \u201cIt was a perfect opportunity for automation robotics to step in and help,\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/10\/22\/restaurants-looking-for-labor-and-speed-turn-to-robots-.html\">said<\/a>&nbsp;Miso Robotics CEO Mike Bell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The robot\u2019s throughput is 30 percent higher than that of its predecessor, which adds up to around 60 baskets of fried food per hour.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/misorobotics.com\/press-release\/miso-robotics-announces-flippy-2-next-generation-flagship-product\/\">According to<\/a>&nbsp;Bell, \u201cFlippy 2 has more than 120 configurations built into its technology and is the only robotic fry station currently being produced at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The initial commercial version of Flippy went on the market for $30,000 in 2020, but Miso\u2019s aiming to get the price down to $20,000. There\u2019s also $1,500 monthly fee for the robot\u2019s software. So while the robotic kitchen assistant isn\u2019t exactly cheap, it will pay for itself pretty quickly when compared to the cost of keeping human employees on staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Comparisons like this are exactly what feed fears around technological unemployment. However, there are signs that the labor shortages we\u2019re currently seeing may not be temporary. An April 2021 report called&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.economicmodeling.com\/demographic-drought\/\"><em>The Demographic Drought<\/em><\/a>, put together by labor market data company&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.economicmodeling.com\/\">Emsi<\/a>, predicted that we\u2019re going to be stuck with \u201ctoo much work and too little people\u201d for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many workers from the baby boomer generation retired early because of the pandemic, birth rates are falling, and millennials have less of a need to work thanks to inheriting money from their parents or grandparents\u2014these and other factors already mean a lot of unfilled jobs, and as the economy rebounds from the pandemic and continues to grow, it\u2019s likely we\u2019ll see even more of a need for workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we can\u2019t hate on Flippy too much, and shouldn\u2019t be at all surprised if several more fast food chains soon make the robot a permanent part of their payroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-black-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-black-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Image Credit:\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/misorobotics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Miso Robotics<\/a>\/<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/app.box.com\/s\/vkxog3fdl6wzkbvyzui21zk7kcyz9gwk\/file\/882629357168\" target=\"_blank\">Stephen Gold<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Author:<\/strong><br>Vanessa is senior editor of Singularity Hub. She&#8217;s interested in biotechnology and genetic engineering, the nitty-gritty of the renewable energy transition, the roles technology and science play in geopolitics and international development, and countless other topics. <a href=\"https:\/\/singularityhub.com\/author\/vbatesramirez\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Learn More<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/singularityhub.com\/2022\/02\/17\/flippy-the-fast-food-robot-is-going-to-work-in-100-restaurants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Original Article<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before the pandemic started (ah, those glorious days\u2026) a collective panic was mounting over&nbsp;automation&nbsp;and robots gradually&nbsp;replacing workers&nbsp;in various fields, or \u201cstealing our jobs,\u201d as the common refrain went. These worries haven\u2019t subsided two years later, but they\u2019re being countered by severe and largely unexpected labor shortages across multiple sectors of the economy. One of the [&#8230;]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[22,174,17],"series":[],"class_list":["post-3398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articulos-ingles","tag-automation","tag-flippy","tag-robotics"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/08-Flippy-in-maintenance.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/11711533-1673157178559-89a95be153719-4-scaled.jpg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/en\/feed\/podcast\/the-feedback-loop-by-singularity","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"6AHbYIXabX\"><a href=\"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/en\/flippy-the-fast-food-robot-just-got-hired-in-100-restaurants\/\">Flippy the Fast Food Robot Just Got Hired in 100 Restaurants<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/en\/flippy-the-fast-food-robot-just-got-hired-in-100-restaurants\/embed\/#?secret=6AHbYIXabX\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;Flippy the Fast Food Robot Just Got Hired in 100 Restaurants&#8221; &#8212; Singularity Mexico\" data-secret=\"6AHbYIXabX\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\n\/*! 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