Project Tuck: An Automated End-to-End Robotic Fryer Solution for Quick Service Restaurants

酒店业目前正经历其历史上最具挑战性的市场条件。COVID-19疫情迫使大范围关闭，社交距离大大减少了能够在厨房工作的员工人数。许多雇员已经找到了其他工作，不会再回到厨房工作。快速服务餐厅（QSR）在大流行前就已经面临严重的员工短缺，需要解决方案来解决这一员工危机，同时又不影响产品质量。Karakuri诞生于更新和改造即食餐市场的市场需求，处于餐饮服务机器人技术的前沿。我们希望为餐厅员工提供更好，更充实的工作环境，消除重复，炎热，耗时的任务。该项目将为QSR厨房开发一种自动化解决方案，针对一些经常空缺和无法填补的角色，导致工作人员从其他角色中分心，以覆盖他们，或导致临时或永久的餐厅关闭。它将消除工作人员操作炎热，不愉快，往往危险的设备的需要，并更好地从事更有成就感的任务。通过预测需求和优化批量生产，我们的解决方案将节省能源和食物浪费，并最大限度地提高效率。Karakuri解决方案利用现有的设备和提取，为许多热熟食品提供从冷冻到包装的全自动化。在COVID-19危机之后，Karakuri将通过我们的机器人解决方案支持酒店业和英国商业街，使不愉快和不安全的任务自动化，解决员工危机并防止企业倒闭，通过再培训和重新部署到更安全和更愉快的QSR角色，大大改善员工福利（通常是年轻和边缘化的工人），并为更广泛的经济复苏做出贡献。同时提高产品质量，确保产品一致性，节省能源和食物浪费。

The hospitality industry is currently experiencing the most challenging market conditions in its history. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced widespread closures and social distancing has vastly reduced the number of staff able to operate in a kitchen. Many employees have found alternative employment and will not return to working in kitchens. Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), which were already running at a significant pre-pandemic staff deficit, need solutions to address this staffing crisis without compromising product quality.Karakuri was born out of a market need to update and transform the ready-to-eat meal market and is at the cutting-edge of robotics for foodservice. We want to provide a better, more fulfilling working environment for restaurant employees by removing repetitive, hot, time-consuming tasks. This project will develop an automated solution for QSR kitchens, targeting a number of roles that are often vacant and unfillable, resulting in staff being distracted from other roles to cover them or resulting in temporary or permanent restaurant closures. It will remove the need for staff to operate the hot, unpleasant, often dangerous equipment and be better employed in more fulfilling tasks. By predicting demand and optimising batch production, our solution will save energy and food waste and maximise efficiency. The Karakuri solution utilises existing equipment and extraction and provides full automation from freezer to packing for a number of hot-cooked products.In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, Karakuri will support the hospitality industry and UK high street with our robotics solution to automate an unpleasant and unsafe task, solving the staffing-crisis and preventing business closures, dramatically improving staff-wellbeing (of often young and marginalised workers) by enabling retraining and redeployment to safer and more enjoyable QSR roles, and contributing to the wider economic recovery. All whilst improving product quality, ensuring product consistency and saving energy and food waste.