
Spyce Kitchen, a robotic chef built by four recent M.I.T. grads - crenwick
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/when-a-robot-makes-you-dinner
======
Animats
It's just another automatic wok. There are many companies making those in
China.[1][2][3][4] And those are just the pan style. The simpler rotating-drum
machines are easily available on Alibaba.[5] Those guys didn't do their
homework to see what's available.

The home-sized ones often take a cartridge of little plastic bins preloaded
with the ingredients and coded with the instructions. Just slip one of those
in the slot, push start, and get a good hot meal.

You want to compete with China, you need to know what's already been done
there. Remember those "Bodega" clowns? They apparently didn't know that much
more advanced automatic convenience stores already exist in China.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HkGRzzsKH4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HkGRzzsKH4)
[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCTv-4sFt_s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCTv-4sFt_s)
[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NTIciISVPA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NTIciISVPA)
[4] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S--
wwu4S-w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S--wwu4S-w) [5]
[https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/automatic-wok-
machine.html](https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/automatic-wok-machine.html)

~~~
kough
Well, no, it's not just an automatic wok - there's a consumer experience
around an automatic wok. Integrating everything so that there's no human
involved whatsoever is a bit more difficult than ordering an automatic wok
from Alibaba. If you're trying to serve freshy-cooked meals from a vending
machine, there is so much more going on than just the heating elements.

Just to pick one: the supply chain is a real issue. Getting fresh ingredients
into the machines, keeping them running, performing maintenance... all of that
requires a well-tuned supply chain, knowledge of food sources, etc.,
especially since Spyce is targeting an upscale "fast-casual" (~healthy)
demographic.

As a disclaimer I was pitched by this team in 2015-2016, and was pretty
convinced that they weren't facing much local competition.

~~~
opencl
So they have to buy an automatic wok on alibaba, and then do the exact same
things every other fast-casual restaurant already does?

------
bhouston
People seem to forget that nearly all frozen meals and frozen pizzas are all
robotic made by the many millions per day. Just by very expensive, large and
high speed robots.

The innovation is now trying to make robots that are more flexible, smaller
and low volume food production while not being super expensive.

~~~
baldfat
Applebees could be all cooked by Robots also since all their food is
microwaved frozen food. (I tell friends if you can't smell (edit) cooking
outside the restaurant they are just a microwave kitchen.)

Fast food could also be run by robots fairly easily. I am imagining in 15
years most places will have robots doing the majority of cooking in
restaurants. They won't spread disease, make food consistently, won't call out
sick nor require an hourly wage.

~~~
eropple
When you can't "smell cooking" (as I assume you meant to write), it means
their HVAC works, and if you can't "see cooking" (the other reasonable
option?), it means they know how to put up a wall. Your friends should be
taking you with a grain of salt.

"All their food" at Applebee's is not "microwaved frozen food"; I know plenty
of people who got their start as cooks and chefs there. Something like three-
quarters is made in-house and you'd have to be blind and unable to feel your
tongue to not be able to tell a microwaved steak.

~~~
baldfat
Looks like Applebee's is actually starting to cook items. I guess public
pressure has changed their ways. Good for them. They absolutely were the king
of microwaved food in chain sit downs for decades.

Appetizers are all frozen and pre-packaged they just deep fried at almost all
chains.

Heck I worked at Ethan Allen Inn in Danbury CT a LONG time ago and all the
meals were frozen and prepared in France and shipped over. Easily $75 to $125
per person in the 90s.

Smell outside a restraunt is certainly a true statement. No HVAC (A/C or
Heater) is going to filter the kitchen's vent. Tell me you can't smell the
difference between Burger King's fake grilling and McDonald when your outside
of them? Same thing with restaurants. The one's that microwave a ton will

~~~
michaelvoz
I just ate at The Modern in NYC the other day. The Modern is a Michelin star
restaurant. I didn't smell cooking. Half the dining experience at Michelin
restaurants is all about tightly controlling the inflow of stimuli to your
senses. No good restaurant would want you to smell someone else's seafood
cooking while you start on desert. Is your experience limited solely to to
restaurants with poor HVAC?

~~~
baldfat
I stated specifically outside not inside. You smell cooking from outside since
kitchen's are vented. Now in NYC sometimes the vents are on top of a 25 story
building and that beautiful NYC post winter stench might cover it up.

If a restaurant has a ton of items on the menu I guarantee you that most of
that is just prepared food that is microwaved.

Seems like people are mad that I believe that most food in restaurants are not
cooked.

~~~
eropple
I don't think people are "mad". But you have a track record of saying
trivially disproven, unsubstantiated things on HN and you backtrack poorly
from them, then you sprinkle in weirdly fixated antagonism like "NYC post
winter stench". It's bad posting, and it's wrong besides--the gap between
"they don't cook anything" and "they fry frozen appetizers and cook everything
else as anyone else would" is not so small that you can handwave it away with
"lol people are mad". I mean, hell, Applebee's has had apply-fire-to-food line
cooks for _twenty years_ or more. I knew kids in high school who worked there
(and we'd go there because we got a discount).

(And if there's any wind at all, modern roof-mount kitchen venting will ensure
you don't smell much of anything if there's even moderate wind.)

~~~
baldfat
> I don't think people are "mad". But you have a track record of saying
> trivially disproven, unsubstantiated things on HN and you backtrack poorly
> from them

I either state my person experience from many years ago. (Don't need to
present a research link) OR I present my research. Sorry you don't find me as
a positive addition on HN.

I was stating my personal experience of working at a restaurant that had their
meals prepared in France was frozen and shipped to America. The preparation
was boiled in bags or microwaved and got high dollar for the meals. That is my
personal experience.

Long time ago most chains like Applebee's and Tuesday's meals were prepared
hours, days or weeks before a person would eat them and either they were
boiled in a bag, microwaved or deep fried. This still happens more than people
know. That is my statement.

Here is an article on expensive French Restaurants use of pre-pared food.

[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/728...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7285770/Majority-
of-French-restaurants-using-ready-made-factory-food.html)

So I guess me saying that if I can't smell a kitchen cooking food it probably
is making pre-pared meals. I could also state that if the menu has hundreds of
items they are also pre-pared meals, but to you that is poor posting?

I much rather have a few option that are fresh and that is what the OP
Restaurant is doing with robots and one human at a garnish station. Most of
America's restaurants do not use fresh food or prepare your food that day.
Applebee's has gone out of their way to change the way they make food.

"Today, the country's largest casual dining chain lights up 2,000 new wood-
fired grills for a revamped menu with steaks that Applebee's hand-cuts on the
premises. Amid the barrage of price-driven industry promotions, Applebee's
thinks its upgrade to USDA Choice beef, along with the stacks of logs outside
restaurants and the aroma of wood smoke inside, will pique consumer interest.
That's something the chain needs right now: In the last fiscal financial year,
same-restaurant sales were flat, and this year, Applebee's expects sales to
range from a negative 2 percent drop to a 2 percent gain."
[http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/applebees-bets-big-
rel...](http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/applebees-bets-big-relaunching-
brand-around-wood-fired-steaks-171477/)

~~~
truetraveller
This is 100% correct. I seriously can't believe people are hating on you. Too
many rude comments!

------
maxxxxx
I find it interesting how good the top schools are at making sure they get
credit for things. I often read "Harvard scientist..., MIT grads, Stanford..."
in headlines. You rarely read "University of Minnesota" (just a made up
example) so the casual reader may think that Harvard, MIT and Stanford are the
only schools that do interesting things.

And it really works. At a startup I worked at we had a guy from MIT and
whenever the VCs talked to to the low ranks they inevitable ended up talking
to him. And no, he was not the best engineer. Not even close.

~~~
coupdejarnac
It's name dropping, appealing to people who are easily impressed.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
This. Regardless of the school name you prefix it with "graduates designed"
conjures up mental imagery of bolted assemblies with fasteners you can't
actually get a wrench on and massive stamped parts with a size tolerance of
whatever the default in their cad software was"

------
Symmetry
Nice to see them getting coverage, we were at the same startup incubator
(Greentown) before we both moved on to larger offices. I can attest that the
food this machine makes is, in fact, tasty.

~~~
jpm_sd
The description in the article suggests that the machine does not actually
make any of the food, it just measures and dispenses pre-cooked items into a
bowl? So it's a glorified automatic dog feeder?

~~~
Symmetry
No, the machine actually does do the cooking. There's an induction based
heater that also mixes the food. Different sorts of raw vegetables are added
by a hopper in a sequence that depends on their cooking time. Finally the
mixer/cooker dispenses the meal into a bowl.

------
syntaxing
Here's a post from two years ago that has a video and some photos[1]. Not sure
what warranted a new article from the New Yorker (maybe a product release?).

[1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/mit-students-invented-a-
robot...](http://www.businessinsider.com/mit-students-invented-a-robotic-
kitchen-2016-4)

------
JoeAltmaier
I've been predicting robotic fast food for a decade now. And it's here! By
cooking with no human hand ever coming into contact with the ingredients or
utensils, clearly a health benefit is accrued. And by steam-cleaning the
cooker periodically, quality is improved.

I'd envisioned a somewhat different robot. I thought the ingredients could be
tube-delivered like caulking guns, on a rotating 'tool carousel' so you could
cook different recipes by selecting and timing. And process vertically so you
avoid most 'conveyor belt' issues. Finally do it as drive-thru with automated
ordering (touch screen/phone app) to eliminate the rest of the human factor.

The result should be good quality, fast food at a radically cheaper price.

~~~
tantalor
> no human hand... clearly a health benefit

That is a non sequitur. The most dangerous illness associated with fast food
(poor nutrition aside) such as E. coli[1] and Hep A[2] are most readily
attributed to ingredient suppliers, not improper food handling.

[1]
[https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2015/o26-11-15/index.html](https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2015/o26-11-15/index.html)

[2]
[https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
And who handles the ingredients improperly? Doesn't refrigerate them
sufficiently? Uses expired ingredients? Fallible humans. Lets remove them from
the equation.

~~~
greedo
Robotic slaughterhouses would still have problem keeping fecal matter out of
meat. The best way of preventing most food illnesses is radiating the food,
but our irrational society won't go for that.

~~~
bpicolo
Irradiation does have issues of it's own, like making things taste funky [0]

[0]:
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03091...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0309174008002337)

------
sorenn111
I'm surprised Moley ([http://www.moley.com/](http://www.moley.com/)) didn't
get a mention. I'm super excited about robotic food preparation, especially in
the case of consumer facing robotics where its a unit in your own kitchen.

With that said, from the robotics progress I've seen/studied, more fundamental
robotics progress needs to be made first. The approaches used right now are
just not durable/reliable enough for mass market adoption. Best of luck to
that team though.

~~~
lnsru
The price of $15k according their YouTube video is ridiculously low. Decent
robot arm costs you $5k alone. Not sure how they will plan to make some profit
even buying parts in bulk.

~~~
leoedin
$5k is on the low end. The demo kitchen they did was with 2 UR5 robots, list
price somewhere around $20k each. They put 2 5 finger hands on the end, which
probably cost at least the same again each. I'd bet you'd be getting well
towards $75k (or maybe even significantly more) just buying the components.

------
jjallen
Wow, really wanted a picture in this article. Will have to read it later to
learn what it looks like.

~~~
spycefoodco
There's a picture in the social share. Check out @spycefoodco on Facebook or
Twitter to see!

~~~
TheAceOfHearts
Why not just link to the picture instead of pandering your social media
accounts?

~~~
ohquu
I went to their Twitter and looked for the picture. I assume this is it. I
don't see anything else:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/983333636975054848/siPS_w5d?f...](https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/983333636975054848/siPS_w5d?format=jpg&name=600x314)

------
dwighttk
>conceived as an engineering solution to every hungry college student’s
gripe—where to get good, cheap food fast. (It’s the same market that the meal-
replacement drink Soylent is after.)

Pretty broad definition of "good" if Soylent fits in there.

------
peteretep
How on earth is there not a photo to go with this?

~~~
tantalor
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc8D-CnDMiE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc8D-CnDMiE)

~~~
spycefoodco
That's an old video. Our new robotic kitchen has been completely redesigned
and reengineered since then. There's a photo in the social share...check out
@spycefoodco on Facebook or Twitter to see the image.

~~~
tantalor
Is it so hard to give us a link to the video?

