A humanoid robot that prepares packed lunches in Japan

In 2018, the company RT Co. , Ltd. announced a prototype of a collaborative humanoid service robot, which they call Foodly , and which organizes the food included in the packed lunches, better known in Japan as ” bento “. With this robot, RT Co. is challenging technological development in cutting-edge AI and robotics.

Foodly , which is a robot in constant development, can work on the production line of a bento (lunch to go) factory alongside people. He is about 130-150cm tall and designed in a humanoid shape with smooth movements and friendly appearance so that people can work alongside him at ease. In terms of technology, the design makes sense: the position and control of the camera that has the function of identifying the irregularly shaped ingredients in the production line and from there moving it to the container or packaging of the bento .

With these robots, technology could fill the gap that the food industry is suffering in Japan and be able to face the country’s labor shortage, in addition to improving sanitary measures, especially at the current time with the COVID situation. -19.

For its operation they have installed an advanced image analysis program and artificial intelligence. Its design is based on a pair of tweezers instead of hands with which it chooses the type of ingredient that should be placed in the lunch box according to its location on the production line. Using its technology, which is state-of-the-art in the food industry, it can identify irregularly shaped ingredients like fried chicken and place them inside lunch boxes.

And not only, for example, it is also programmed to be used in bakeries where a special AI-equipped oven is used to bake Baumkuchen , a type of German sweet bread that is a very popular dessert in Japan. The system automatically adjusts the oven temperature and is able to decide when to apply a new layer of dough to the rotating cake, both tasks that would normally have to be done under the watchful eye of an experienced baker.

For its operation, the ingredients and containers are simply selected using the monitor, press Start and that’s it! It is not necessary to establish the lighting conditions or train the robots, since the RT Co company previously tests ingredients and packaging with companies that want to have this robot in their production lines. You can achieve a serving speed of 700-800 lunches/hour and a success rate of 80-95% depending on the ingredients!