Ramen Robot Delivers Customized Noodle Soup
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 6 of July , 2009 at 2:40 am
The appeal of fast food isn’t just that it’s fast and cheap and delicious… It’s that it’s standardized. It doesn’t matter what McDonald’s you go to or when you go there, and you don’t even have to look at the menu. The Big Mac is going to taste like every other Big Mac you’ve ever had. It’s predictable and comforting. Since robots are awesome when it comes to precision repeatability, it’s only natural to set them up as fast food chefs, with the added benefit that they can make it just the way you like it, time after time. And I mean exactly the way you like it.
This robot was created by Yoshihira Uchida, and makes ramen noodle soup at Momozono Robot Ramen in Japan. Customers place their orders on a computer, and the bot whips up a steaming bowl of soup in about two minutes, adding soy sauce, salt, and other fixin’s in precisely the one in approximately 40 million combination that you desire. A human still has to add the noodles by hand, but that’s being worked on.
The other side to this, of course, is that some people enjoy a limited amount of unpredictability. I’m not much of a chef myself; I get endlessly frustrated with recipes that call for “pinches” of things and adding other things “to taste.” The goal, I guess, is to let you add some individuality to the food. But even this is something that a robot could easily accomplish, whether through the use of random variables, or just by surprising you with someone else’s recipe. What would you prefer; the same mechanically precise soup every time, or some variation that might be better sometimes and worse other times?
VIA [ Mainichi ]
Comments (2)
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Comment by Joey1058
Made Tuesday, 7 of July , 2009 at 1:20 pm
I just realized the ultimate irony in fast food bots. People in general work in fast food because they have to. These people always wish they could be replaced by a robot. Well, now they can be, of course going around the monumental governmental red tape. So in 50 years, when we all are able to live forever, we’ll be occupying some type of machine. We effectively will be bots. And as bots, what will we do for employment? Why, work in fast food, of course!
Comment by Petrasha
Made Thursday, 23 of July , 2009 at 11:16 am
I’m not much of a chef myself
Comment by YUsha
Made Sunday, 13 of September , 2009 at 11:59 pm
I’m not much of a chef myself
Comment by Lenusha
Made Sunday, 20 of September , 2009 at 5:37 am
I’m not much of a chef myself
Comment by YUrasya
Made Sunday, 20 of September , 2009 at 1:20 pm
А вот бы еще по русски.
Comment by Ritusha
Made Wednesday, 4 of November , 2009 at 2:26 pm
Cool robot!
Comment by Anatolich
Made Wednesday, 4 of November , 2009 at 11:31 pm
cool
Comment by Artamonich
Made Monday, 11 of January , 2010 at 8:54 am
So in 50 years, when we all are able to live forever, we’ll be occupying some type of machine. We effectively will be bots. And as bots, what will we do for employment? Why, work in fast food, of course!
Comment by willy
Made Monday, 11 of January , 2010 at 8:55 am
good luck all
Comment by willy
Made Thursday, 4 of February , 2010 at 11:58 am
ust realized the ultimate irony in fast food bots. People in general work in fast food because they have to. These people always wish they could be replaced by a robot. Well, now they can be, of course going around the monumental governmental red tape