FOOD PREPERATION
Robotics & Automation
Automating Food Preparation at Home: A Closer Look at Bots That Cook
Robots have seen widespread adoption across multiple industries, and now, they’re moving into the home. Consumer robots like dishwashers and robotic vacuums have been available for decades, but now they’re becoming more advanced, resembling commercial bots. One of the best places to find these robots is in the kitchen.
Generally speaking, automation is ideal for repetitive, predictable tasks, which doesn’t describe much in the kitchen. Preparing food often involves some amount of nuance and reacting on the fly to different variables. This unpredictability is why kitchen robots haven’t seen much use. That is, until now.
Experts predict there will be 482.8 million smart homes by 2025. The home automation market is booming, and robotic kitchens are a natural extension of these systems. Automated food preparation is already more prevalent than many may realize.
Restaurant Robots
Like in most segments, the commercial kitchen space has embraced robotics before home kitchens have. As more restaurants implement robotics, the same technology will become more accessible and affordable. In turn, home kitchen alternatives will become more popular.
Semi-Autonomous Kitchen Appliances
The most common instances of robotics in home kitchens are less flashy than a robot bartender. As the smart home movement has gained momentum, semi-autonomous IoT technologies have appeared throughout the kitchen. These robots may only automate a few smaller tasks, but even marginal improvements save home cooks plenty of time.
Kitchen Cobots
Of course, there are more advanced consumer kitchen robots available today, too. Collaborative robots, or cobots, have seen extensive use in industrial settings, and now they’re coming to the kitchen. These robots serve as cooking assistants, performing various tasks to help people prepare meals in their homes.
At the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Samsung unveiled the Bot Handy, a robotic helper for various household chores. Bot Handy can put dishes away, grab items from the pantry, pour drinks, set the table and more. While it can’t prepare an entire meal for someone, it can help streamline the process by automating these tasks. Bot Handy isn’t on the market just yet, but it could signal what’s to come in the next few years.