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

酒店业目前正经历着其历史上最具挑战性的市场环境。COVID-19大流行迫使大范围关闭，社交距离大大减少了能够在厨房工作的员工人数。许多员工已经找到了其他工作，不会再回到厨房工作。在大流行前，快餐店的工作人员已经严重短缺，需要在不影响产品质量的情况下解决这一人员危机。Karakuri的诞生源于市场对即食食品市场更新和转型的需求，是食品服务机器人技术的前沿。我们希望通过消除重复、热门、耗时的任务，为餐厅员工提供更好、更充实的工作环境。该项目将为QSR厨房开发一个自动化解决方案，针对一些经常空缺和无法填补的角色，导致员工从其他角色中分心，以填补他们或导致临时或永久关闭餐厅。这将使工作人员不再需要操作热的、不愉快的、往往是危险的设备，从而更好地从事更有意义的任务。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，为许多热熟产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，将不愉快和不安全的任务自动化，解决员工危机，防止企业倒闭，通过重新培训和重新部署到更安全、更愉快的QSR角色，显著改善员工（通常是年轻和边缘化的员工）的福祉，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，节约能源和食物浪费。

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.