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Mr Roboto
Masterchef
Chefs may soon be fearing for their jobs
as a London-based robotics company
unveils a prototype for a robot that can
cook meals! With over 2,000 recipes
stored inside it’s robotic mind, this
robot can create delicious meals with
its highly-agile hands and has wowed
one of the UK’s top chefs with its ability
to recreate even the trickiest of dishes.
Moley Robotics, a UK company,
are the geniuses behind the ‘robochef’,
which is effectively a pair of arms in-
stalled above a cooker. The creators
teamed up with Shadow Robot Company
to manufacture a pair of super dexterous
hands that have 24 joints, 20 motors
and nearly 130 sensors to handle all the
fiddly aspects of cooking.
The robot’s movements were mod-
elled on the UK Masterchef winner Tim
Anderson, using digital mapping of the
chef in action to capture all the nuances
and fancy flicks of a real chef. Anderson
was also asked to test the finished robot
by requesting it cook him a dish, and the
Clever robots
•
Robots are set to be used
to clean polluted drains in
Chennai, India.
•
Google has acquired a
patent for giving robots
personalities.
•
A female-looking robot
called Aiko Chihara from
Toshibaworks at the
information desk in a
department store in Tokyo.
•
A company in the US is
investing in robots that can
clean floors.
top chef was “stunned” by the quality of
the result. In a statement, he said:
“To be honest, I didn’t think it was
possible. I chose crab bisque as a dish
because it’s a real challenge for hu-
man chefs to make well, never mind a
machine. Having seen – and tasted – the
results for myself, I am stunned. This
is the beginning of something really
significant: a whole new opportunity for
producing good food and for people to
explore the world’s cuisines.”
Pre-Order
The robochef comes with an app for
remote control which allows you to
place your dinner request and get the
chef cooking before you leave the of-
fice! As if that wasn’t good enough,
Moley Robotics are also talking about
equipping the robochef with cameras
so owners can teach it to make their
favourite dishes, as well as enlarging it
to become a dishwasher too – cooking
and cleaning in one!
While the robochef is still only a
prototype, the company hopes to be
able to sell it to restaurants and other
domestic kitchens by 2017, although
such convenience doesn’t come cheap –
expect to pay at least RM55,000 for your
own robochef! It might be cheaper just
to cook for yourself...
W o r d s :
S a r a h R e e s