Dear Bernie Sanders, it is our great pleasure to introduce to you, "Flippy", the burger-flipping robot that will soon replace all those fast food workers that you're working so vehemently to get fired via your efforts to introduce artificially high $15 per hour minimum wage rates.
“Flippy”, a robotic kitchen assistant, is the creation of Miso Robotics, an engineering firm specializing in “adaptable robotics” for commercial kitchens. Miso's goal is to develop technology that can handle hazardous, tedious and time-sensitive aspects of cooking, from flipping burgers to frying chicken, cutting vegetables or final plating...in other words, all of the minimum wage restaurant jobs where employee costs just skyrocketed courtesy of economics-challenged politicians.
Per Nation's Restaurant News, 'Flippy' is no longer just a concept as it won its first major contract with CaliBurger which vowed to roll out the burger-flipping technology in all of its 50 global locations by the end of 2019.
“The application of artificial intelligence to robotic systems that work next to our employees in CaliBurger restaurants will allow us to make food faster, safer and with fewer errors,” said Miller. “Our investment in Miso Robotics is part of our broader vision for creating a unified operating system that will control all aspects of a restaurant, from in-store interactive gaming entertainment, to automated ordering and cooking processes, ‘intelligent’ food delivery and real-time detection of operating errors and pathogens.”
The chain declined to reveal the cost of Flippy, saying Miso Robotics is working with customers to determine the best pricing model.
“The price will be in line with the productivity benefits Flippy provides to restaurant owners,” said a spokesperson.
And while Caliburger declined to reveal the cost of "Flippy", we're going to go out on a limb and assume they wouldn't be rolling out the technology unless they were getting a decent ROIC on their investment...just a hunch.
Here are some videos of "Flippy" in action:
http://player.vimeo.com/video/206666438
http://player.vimeo.com/video/207293141