Patents on the soles of your shoes...: Oh, patents! Spyce’s robotic kitchen

Healthy, gourmet-quality, fast food?

Yes, a selection of vegetarian/pescatarian, gluten-free, vegan and regular bowls, prepared fresh à la carte in three minutes or less, at Spyce’s robotic kitchen, a Boston restaurant founded by four MIT graduates. Four water-polo playing “robotics-obsessed mechanical engineers” who built the prototype of the Spyce kitchen in the basement of their fraternity house, fueled by the dream of tempting meals, served fresh daily by a robot!

At Spyce, “at the intersection of technology and hospitality”, customers select a bowl and its customization from a touchscreen menu, coaching appropriate pairings. Ingredients are then dispensed from a hopper, into a wok, where they are sautéd (tumbled and seared), and then tipped into a bowl. The bowl is then pleasantly garnished by a human employee, for an affordable sum of $7.50. After delivering a bowl, the wok is automatically sanitized clean, ready to receive the ingredients of the next order.

Spyce bowls not only contain fresh-sourced ingredients, elevated by robotics, the whole process is supervised by the finest chefs. Indeed, Chef Daniel Boulud is Spyce’s Culinary Director and Investor. Likewise, Chef Sam Benson, Spyce’s Executive Chef, trained at the flagship Café Boulud, the award-winning, Michelin-starred, fine-dining restaurant, with locations in Boston, NY, Washington DC, Palm Beach, Miami, Toronto, Montréal, London, and Singapore!

Spyce's robotic kitchen

Spyce’s robotic kitchen is disclosed in the US patent application US20170172350A1, titled Automated meal production system and apparatus. The patent recites an apparatus and automated system designed to prepare up to 300 meals per day, without human intervention. The system requires human servicing and refilling of the apparatus only once every 24 hours. The automated system comprises ingredient-holding and dispensing assemblies, including precise measuring means, and separate modules for liquids such as oil, sauces, and creams; preparation assemblies including rotating and gimbaling means, for receiving, mixing and pouring the ingredients; and convection elements for each of the preparation assemblies, designed to heat the ingredients. Automated transfer assemblies ensure that the right ingredients from the holding and dispensing assemblies find their way to the right preparation assemblies. The preparation assemblies are also each preferably lined with Teflon™, and comprise an interior fin to facilitate mixing when the assembly rotates. The apparatus is controlled by a computer program, receiving input from the touchscreen terminals, mobile apps, or a more central system. The system also comprises weight and heat sensors to ensure consistent and safe cooking.

The abstract of the patent is included below, together with Figure 12, showing the robotic kitchen with the ingredient-holding and dispensing assemblies (204), and different positions of the gimbaled preparation assemblies (100), below the holding and dispensing assemblies (204). A picture of the actual Spyce restaurant robotic kitchen is included above, also showing the hoppers and the open face woks beneath, so that customers can see how the meals are cooked and prepared, without human intervention.

An automated kitchen system having multiple cooking and/ or mixing pots and having containers and dispensers for multiple ingredients. A customer or other person or system selects or creates a meal or other food product and the ingredients for the meal or other product are transferred from dispensers to the cooking and/or mixing pots which simultaneously cook and/or mix the ingredients. After cooking, the meal or other product is served and the cooking pot is cleaned and sanitized and oriented to receive the ingredients for the next meal or other product [Abstract US20170172350A1].