White Castle Tests Burger-Flipping Robot

(Photo: Miso Robotics) White Castle, an American fast food chain famous for steaming its burger patties under mountains of onions, is adding a robotic line cook to one of its kitchens. Flippy, an AI kitchen assistant, will soon join the crew at a currently-undisclosed White Castle location in Chicago to test the feasibility of robotic kitchen operations in fast food restaurants.

Flippy isn’t a two-legged robot wearing an apron and wielding a spatula, though. (Sorry to disappoint.) Instead, it’s a massive piece of kitchen equipment resembling a traditional fast food assembly line, stainless steel deep fryers and all. The difference is that Flippy can automatically dispense food from its own refrigerated or frozen storage bins into each of its fryer baskets, after which the robot’s arm individually moves the baskets into the oil to fry. According to California-based Miso Robotics, which specializes in AI-supported robotic foodservice solutions, Flippy uses AI-vision to identify which foods it’s cooking and “fry them to perfection every time.” Miso Robotics claims the system doubles the speed of standard food prep tasks and increases fried food throughput by up to 30 percent. (White Castle has a similar effect on the human digestive system – Ed)

Miso Robotics’ partnership with White Castle allows Flippy’s automation to go a step further. White Castle plans on integrating Flippy with its point-of-sale system, allowing the robot to begin cooking up an order as soon as it’s been submitted. Considering many White Castle locations possess touchscreen stations that customers can order from directly, Flippy’s installation will help automate almost all of the fast food experience from start to finish. 

(Photo: Miso Robotics)

Though new to what’s controversially considered the world’s first burger chain, this won’t be Flippy’s first fast food rodeo. Flippy systems can currently be found at Dodger Stadium in LA, the Diamondbacks’ Chase Field in Phoenix, and two CaliBurger restaurants, where they’ve fried 20 tons of food since 2018. Much of Flippy’s desirability so far has been in its ability to boost consistency; sensors and intelligent monitoring help keep food temperatures and assembly uniform, which has long been considered vital to the success of any fast food establishment. While this is a major factor in White Castle’s decision to try out Flippy, the company is particularly interested in reducing human contact with food as contagious disease concerns remain relevant. 

If Flippy’s test run in Chicago goes well, White Castle will integrate a hundred more systems in locations across the country. 

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