Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
Detailed description of the invention
More specifically, and according to a preferred embodiment, the proposed fully
automated robot
system for fast-food and quick service restaurants (or home kitchens) consists
of a machine
controlled by special controllers connected to a standard or industrial
computer, composed of
several mechanical bodies and different mechanical structures of robot arms,
which main bodies are
attached to the kitchen ceiling, and able to carry out, with a high degree of
accuracy, a series of
repetitive tasks that human labor usually execute inside the kitchen of such
restaurants, tasks such
as: handling, preparing, cooking, transporting and serving food and soda
beverages, as well as
picking-up trays and washing dishes. The robot machine's main bodies are
suspended to the
kitchen's ceiling and slide to move around the kitchen space (fig. 1). They
comprise one (or more)
robotic arm made up of several metal segments, attached together by joints,
and ending with an end
effector, or gripper, specially designed to be capable of grabbing and
carrying food and beverage
cups or bottles (such as fries, hamburger meat slice, bread, chicken nuggets,
soda drinks, etc.) as
well as food containers, trays and various kitchen equipment. The mechanical
structure of each
robot is composed of 1 to 6 dof (degrees of freedom) in a flexible
configuration of translations and
rotations depending on required tasks. It is driven by multiple servomotors,
one for each dof. Each
servomotor is driven by special controllers which include a specific
configuration of electronic parts
connected in a network with other controllers. The programming algorithms are
executed by a
computer that determines the kind of task each robot must perform and at what
moment. Several
security and protection functionalities are implemented, such as: double bus
control command, dual
line encoders, feed-back in position for each dof, optical and proximity
sensors etc. Because several
human workers can work at the same time with the robotic system, a lot of
security laws are
implemented: law no. 1: the movement of the robotic system is exclusively on
the ceiling, the floor
being reserved for employees who may be working at the same time with the
robotic system; law
no. 2: the humans have always priority, the robot stops and waits if the human
uses or intends to use
the same instrument or kitchen appliances (this is possible due to optical and
proximity sensors);
law no.3: the supervisor has absolute control over the system and can, in real
time, stop and delay
the task of each robot or repair some failures. Law no. 4: the system is
equipped with fire
extinguisher devices and fire, smoke and temperature detectors which can
optionally work locally
automatically or under supervisor acceptance; law no. 5: the serving and
discharging of trays is only
possible with human acceptance (see the drawings) and only if these operations
are deemed safe.
Orders (online or inline) are instantly processed but food preparation is not
necessarily performed in
the same order: cooking time is optimized with special neuronal network
algorithms to minimize
customers' waiting time.
The robot's dynamics are calculated to support 30% overspeed for emergency
situations such as
crowded situations.
All robots are controlled by an industrial or standard computer allowing the
arm to move very
precisely, repeating exactly the required series of movements over and over
again. The proposed
system works with tablet computers (or similar), installable onsite and
running a program that
customers would use to place their food order. Another option is an online
website and/or a mobile
application for customers to remotely place their orders for delivery.
Furthermore, and according to a preferred process, the proposed robot
functions as follows: (1)
customer places an order, either using a tablet computer accessible onsite (or
places an order
remotely via an online website or mobile application); (2) application sends
order details to the
robot's computer which in turn sends commands to the robotic arms; (3) the
cooking robot starts
preparing the requested meal by gathering the required ingredients (pre-
calibrated doses of fries,
meat, vegetables, bread, etc.) and cooking them (if necessary), using the
robotic arm and
food cooking appliances ; (4) the cooking robot places prepared food and
requested
beverage(s) in their respective container(s) and on a tray (or in a bag, if
it's for delivery or to go);
(5) the cooking robot transfers the tray (or bag) to the serving robot using
sts (serving transfer
CA 2994128 2018-02-07
system, fig. 3); (6) the serving robot grabs the tray and brings it to the
customer's table (or grabs the
bag and brings it either to the delivery person or to the customer) using the
tts (table transfer
system, fig. 4); (7) once the customer is done eating, s/he pushes a button to
ask for a clean-up; (8)
the serving robot picks-up the tray from the customer's table, using the tts
(table transfer system, fig.
4), throws its content into the trash, and places tray on a counter for
washing; (9) the cleaning robot
washes the pile of used trays for future use, and other dishes, using the cts
(cleaning transfer system,
fig.2).
The proposed fully automated fast-food preparation robot, is customizable and
adjustable to most
existing fast-food kitchens' settings and equipment, as well as to most home
kitchens with same
results.
The main advantages of the proposed fully automated fast-food preparation
robot are numerous: (1)
it does not require to replace or modify any of the existing kitchen's
settings and equipment; (2) it
saves on human labor cost; (3) it is customizable to different kitchen
settings; (4) it ensures a fast
service and is less error-prone than humans; (5) it is safer as far as food
contaminations is
concerned and as far as human workers' physical safety is concerned.
(6)eliminate waiting lines in
front of the desk people waiting their turn
seated at the tables (7) for the first time in the fast food restaurantes the
peuple will be serve at the
table by the robot-waiters and no tip necessary :) (8) the people can
programmed by internet the
serving time ¨ what time can be served and at what table - the estimated
arriving time at the
restaurant.
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Statement regarding federally sponsored research or
development --- not applicable
In order to build a prototype, technoaccord inc. has used some sr&ed funds
from federal
government. "the scientific research and experimental development (sr&ed)
program is a federal
tax incentive program designed to encourage canadian businesses of all sizes
and in all sectors to
conduct research and development (r&d) in canada. The program is administered
by the canada
revenue agency (era), which delivers sr&ed tax incentives in a timely,
consistent and predictable
manner, while encouraging businesses to prepare their claims in compliance
with canada's tax laws
and the era's policies and procedures. "
Cross-reference to related applications --- not applicable
Reference to a sequence listing, a table, or a computer program, listing
compact disc
appendix --- not applicable
Background of the invention
This invention belongs to the field of robotics applied to the preparation of
food, especially
designed for quick service and fast-food restaurants (and can also be
implemented within ordinary
home kitchens).
In 2013, there were 232,611 establishments in the u.s. fast food industry,
employing over three and
a half million people. The avalanche of rising costs in that industry is
making fast-food franchisers
look for technology that can allow them to produce more food, faster, with
higher quality and lower
waste, with labor being a large portion of the total cost (around $47bn).
Additionally, in sparsely
populated areas, recruiting sufficient numbers of employees is difficult.
Also, the time-dependant
and variable customer demands cannot be precisely predicted and often results
in overstaffed and
understaffed locations. Health and safety concerns are also important issues
where food is prepared
directly by people, such as the ones related with cooking oil's high
temperatures, or with flu
propagation by sick employees contaminating the food. Consequently, there is
an obvious need and
utility for an automated food preparation method, and therefore the goal of
the present invention is
to propose a fully automated robot system that would fully or partial replace
human labor in such
restaurants, from receiving orders to preparing, cooking and serving food and
beverages, to picking-
up and washing dishes, while still making use of existing kitchen settings and
equipments. With
fast-food's raw ingredients being already packaged in pre-calibrated doses, it
makes it possible to
automate the process.
Brief summary of the invention
The present invention concerns an innovative and unique fully automated fast-
food preparation
robot for quick service and fast-food restaurants, specially designed to very
precisely execute, over
and over again, the repetitive sequences and gestures required to prepare and
serve fast-food
products, while still using existing kitchen equipment and settings: receiving
customers' orders,
preparing, cooking, serving food and beverages on a tray, and ultimately
discarding the customer's
tray from table and washing dishes.
It consists of a computer-programmed machine system composed of several
mechanical bodies and
different mechanical structures of robot arms, which main bodies are attached
to the kitchen ceiling,
(having one (or more) robotic arm), made up of several metal segments,
attached by joints, and
ending with several dedicated end effectors, or grippers, specially designed
to be able of grabbing
and carrying food, beverages as well as food containers, trays and various
kitchen equipments. The
entire system is flexible for any configuration of kitchen structure or size,
meal quantity or
arrangement or serving space dimensions. The proposed robot system functions
within clearly
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defined processes: the sts (serving transfer system, fig. 3), tts (table
transfer system, fig. 4) and the
cts (cleaning transfer system, fig. 2).
The special feature of this invention is that it is capable of executing the
entire fast-food preparation
tasks usually carried out by human workers, in pre-programmed sequences, in a
fast and efficient
fashion, and without requiring modifications to the existing kitchen's
settings and equipment.
However, new dedicated kitchen equipments can be added.
Brief description of the several views of the drawing
Several drawings showing different views of the proposed fully automated fast-
food preparation
a
1
a
i
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