MOTION SYSTEM TRENDS
Automation putting faster
in the fast-food industry
Shown here is part of a modular pizza-making system offered by the company Picnic through a robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) subscription model. It installs at restaurant locations to fully automate the assembly of up to 300 pizzas per hour. TO THE RELIEF OF THOSE WHO ARE indecisive at the drive through,
McDonald’s Corp. will soon be ramping up its use of voice-activated order taking. That’s according to a Wall Street Journal report last year — which also details how designs coming to the restaurant also include automatic systems to operate the deep fryers for its chicken patties and nuggets, fish filets, and French fries. Of course, what we in the automation industry call machine-to-machine (M2M) networking already helps quick-service restaurants (QSRs) remotely monitor operational data related to food supplies as well as the status of restaurant refrigerators, security, and safes … with many M2M functions even to levels qualifying as IIoT. McDonald’s chief aim in applying automation and connectivity technologies is primarily to address wait times that have lengthened in
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DESIGN WORLD — MOTION
3 • 2020
recent years. Other fast-food chains and QSRs have begun using these technologies to boost safety and consistency. That’s according to to DryLin Product Manager at igus Matt Mowry. “We at igus are seeing an interest in automating certain jobs in the fast food and restaurant industries. Many businesses are using robots to enable people to do other things. In other words, that next egg and cheese that you had for breakfast may have been cooked by a robot,” adds Mowry. One company is using actuators to scoop up eggs and flip them over. Other companies are automating the process of placing items on buns … and all major chains are looking to automate the tasks — even down to filling the beverages. The self-lubricating maintenance-free aspect of engineered plastic components has helped igus become a key player in this industry, says Mowry. “At the last CES show, one display of an AI-powered automated pizza maker prompted public discussion of automation in the food-service industry. Such solutions are on the horizon, though the wide diversity of
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