Cooking robots attract attention and will be widely used in the future

At a recent exhibition, cooking robots caught the attention of many viewers. This robot is fully intelligent and can select or modify menus through its human-machine interactive screen on its chest. Then, the washed dishes are loaded into a standard box, and the program is launched with a mouse. After a few minutes, delicious dishes will be automatically delivered. Not only that, it can also achieve remote control, even in the office, it can start the cooking robot at home through the network or mobile phone.
At present, this robot can cook dozens of dishes.
From the appearance, it looks like an ordinary glass cabinet or refrigerator, but it can make over 300 dishes such as palace fried chicken and crystal shrimp. A cooking robot that is taller than one person recently attracted many curious viewers at an exhibition. "The taste can meet the standards of a star rated restaurant." The on-site staff explained that as long as the prepared ingredients are put in, the robot can automatically recognize what dishes are to be cooked, and you can eat master level dishes in about 3 minutes. The exhibitor stated that with the assistance of two people, the robot can produce dishes for 150 to 180 people within half an hour.
Folk people bravely eat "crabs"
It is understood that this type of cooking robot has not yet been launched into the civilian market. In fact, home cooking robots have made significant progress in China, and some ambitious individuals and forward-looking companies have invented and successfully produced cooking robots. Retired professor Liu Changfa, who lives in Beijing, used to be an expert in automation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His cooking robot won the special prize in the second Beijing Invention Competition and gained a lot of attention at the 2009 Science and Technology Expo. The robot, which is 1.5 meters tall, has a computer host on its legs, a computer display screen on its chest, and bottles and cans of oil, soy sauce, vinegar, water, etc. on its shoulders. Solid condiments such as salt, monosodium glutamate, and sugar are hidden in its chest cavity. The belly mounted induction cooker and pot are used for frying vegetables. As long as you put the dish you want to stir fry into the pot, click on the program on the desktop with the mouse, and the window will display the measurement of oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar. After clicking OK, these items will automatically fall into the pot with an error of no more than 0.1 grams. Different people can change the data and operation time of various indicators according to their own tastes. The robot has a four finger robotic arm, which is equivalent to a human hand directly frying vegetables, and the frying is very even.
At present, this "cook" can cook hundreds of exquisite dishes, such as braised prawns, Braised pork belly, etc. Liu Changfa stated that these recipes were written into computer operating languages after his repeated practice.
"Aike" reproduces master craftsmanship
Liu Changfa once said that in order to make robots produce satisfactory oil braised prawns, he bought dozens of kilograms of prawns alone. It can be seen that what determines the cooking robot's skill is actually the program written.
Coincidentally, the cooking robot "Aike" born in Shenzhen has a unique "craftsmanship": the robot "Aike" is funded by Shenzhen Fanxing Technology Company and commissioned researchers from the Robotics Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University to develop its structure and control system. The School of Tourism Cuisine at Yangzhou University is conducting research on cooking techniques and dish standardization. For over two years, professionals in robotics and cooking have jointly tackled challenges. Firstly, it is necessary to decompose and define the complex cooking techniques and movements of Chinese cuisine, and describe them in language that can be understood by both robotics and culinary professionals; On this basis, identify the core techniques and actions of Chinese cooking; Afterwards, design the robot motion system, including the pot action mechanism, feeding mechanism, fire control mechanism, discharge mechanism, etc.
Nowadays, "Aike" has mastered the "eighteen martial arts" of Chinese cooking techniques, able to freely shake the pot, stir fry, stir fry, stir fry, stir fry, stir fry, etc. In the robot control program, the recipe and experience of Chinese culinary masters are also integrated. Currently, we have obtained over 50 invention patents, including 6 world invention patents.
The evaluation of "Aike" by professionals from the China Cuisine Association is that the dishes cooked by robots have reached the level of professional cooking chefs, even surpassing ordinary chefs, especially with excellent stir frying skills and precise grasp of the mild oil and heat.
Promote the standardization of Chinese cuisine
Liu Changfa believes that the greatest significance of cooking robots lies in achieving standardization of Chinese cuisine. "Chinese cuisine has a wide range of colors, flavors, and flavors, making it world-renowned. However, it is difficult for Chinese restaurants to become giant chain restaurants like McDonald's and KFC. This is because the ultimate skill of Chinese cuisine lies in the hands of chefs, who combine various ingredients based on experience, making it difficult to achieve standardization." Liu Changfa said that he plans to push this robot to the market to achieve automated robot cooking of Chinese cuisine. Standardized side dishes companies can achieve large-scale and standardized production of Chinese cuisine by simply pairing various materials together in a standard pot and implementing it directly by robots.
Zhao Moming, director of Shenzhen Fanxing Technology Co., Ltd., also stated that fast food restaurants such as McDonald's and KFC are unable to develop Chinese cuisine because they find it difficult to standardize Chinese cuisine. "Standardization is reflected in the materials, shapes, and weight of ingredients used in dishes, as well as their consistent levels of calories, fiber, vitamins, and more after cooking. With standardization, robots have emerged, and standardization is a foundation for robots. Therefore, dishes made by robots are stable." Zhao Moming revealed that the "Aike" project research and development team has 21 dish designers, all of whom are Chinese culinary masters, representative chefs of various cuisines, and even halal dishes.
It is understood that the general price of cooking robots is tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan. When will such a price make robots enter ordinary people's homes?
Industry insiders say this is mainly because it is not yet mass-produced, so costs cannot be reduced. Zhao inexplicably admitted that cooking robots are now just a conceptual product, and the industrialization process has not yet been completed. He gave an example and pointed out that when the first batch of mobile phones entered the Chinese market in 1992, their weight was 1.5 kilograms, their body shape was like a rotating head, and their price was 50000 yuan. In just 10 years, it has developed to a point where it can be purchased for only 300 yuan, and its features are far more powerful than before. "Our initial design targets restaurants and canteens, followed by large enterprises, military units, and government agencies. Finally, it will enter households, which is also our company's biggest goal. Our biggest hope is that within 10 years, 1% of households in major cities in China will use this type of robot."
Will chefs be laid off due to this
Zou Zhiping is the executive chef of Anhua Hotel in Wuhan. He was once recommended by Master Lu Yongliang, Vice President of the Chinese Cuisine Association, to Yangzhou University to design 10 Hubei dishes for the robot "Aike". "Cooking robots can only perform simple kitchen techniques such as frying, stir frying, cooking, and frying, but for more complex techniques, robots cannot make them." Zou Zhiping said, for example, steaming vegetables in Hubei has a more complex process, and robots cannot complete it.
Can cooking robots replace humans and produce authentic Hubei cuisine? Regarding this, Zou Zhiping stated that it is difficult to say yet.
But Chinese culinary master Sun Changbi said that the taste of Hubei cuisine is quite exquisite, mainly consisting of slightly spicy, salty and fresh ingredients, and its production process mainly involves simmering, steaming, burning, and stewing. Sun Changbi believes that cooking robots are too mechanized to produce the authentic flavor of Hubei cuisine.
An industry insider stated that the greatest significance of cooking robots lies in improving the standardization and scientificity of Chinese cuisine cooking. A few years ago, Anhui Cuisine Cuisine, one of the eight major cuisines, took the lead in formulating the Table of Anhui Cuisine Cuisine Standard System. The essence of Anhui Cuisine Cuisine standardization is to take the entire process of cooking as the main line, implement scientific, standardized and standardized cuisine production, gradually make cooking get rid of the fuzziness and randomness formed by traditional manual operations, move towards accuracy, move towards standards, and make all Anhui Cuisine Cuisine production links strictly follow the unified standards. Quantitative indicators are used in each step of operation to ensure the consistent quality of food, so as to facilitate the realization of large-scale, mechanized and factory production, which is also the only way to revitalize Chinese cuisine.
There is a dialectical relationship between stir frying robots and dish standards that complement each other, that is, the birth of stir frying robots can ensure the unified quality of dishes; The promulgation of dish standards can also ensure the requirements of stir frying robots for standard raw materials and other aspects.
Some industry insiders believe that even if cooking robots are widely used in the future, chefs will not be laid off or unemployed because human factors are always the top priority. No matter how capable cooking robots are, they are still invented, debugged, and applied by humans. After using the frying robot, the tasks of chefs will become more arduous. It is a long and arduous task to make good use of the frying robot, protect it, and develop it well.

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