Thomas Unise
Chef Robotics has unveiled Chef+, its most advanced AI-enabled meal-assembly robot designed for food manufacturing facilities. Building on insights from over 80 million servings in production, this latest model offers significant improvements in capacity, efficiency, and food safety while maintaining a compact footprint.
Key Advancements in Chef+
The new Chef+ model addresses critical challenges faced by food manufacturers through six major improvements:
- Doubled ingredient capacity with pans twice the volume of previous models, reducing the frequency of refills and increasing productivity
- Compact design that maintains the same footprint as a human worker despite increased capacity, allowing for optimal use of valuable floor space
- Enhanced reliability features including integrated electrical enclosures, IP cameras optimized for cold environments, and improved connectivity
- Advanced food safety design with an open-angle iron frame that eliminates hidden crevices and makes surfaces easier to clean
- Improved usability through features like an integrated locking mechanism for ingredient pans, touchscreens that work with gloves, and self-leveling feet
- Performance enhancements with higher processing power and a three-camera vision system for precise ingredient placement
New “Pat Down” Capability
Chef Robotics has also introduced a new “pat-down” capability that automates the manual task of flattening ingredients. This innovation:
- Uses vibration technology and a flat, cross-slotted utensil to ensure uniform tray coverage
- Employs AI-powered computer vision to track trays in real-time, handling variations in tray positions and line speeds
- Integrates with Chef’s robot-to-robot system for coordinated task distribution in high-volume operations
- Eliminates repetitive stress injuries while reducing labor costs
- Addresses downstream challenges like spillage during sealing, machine downtime, and food waste
Market Availability and Pricing
Chef+ has already been deployed at several customer sites after rigorous testing in the company’s cold-room lab environment. Both the Chef+ robot and the new pat-down capability are now widely available to food manufacturers across the U.S., Canada, and the UK.
Following Chef Robotics’ $43 million Series A funding earlier this year, these innovations represent significant advancements in food manufacturing automation. The company offers its technology through a robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model, requiring no upfront capital investment from manufacturers.
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