Autonomous food station

A food station comprising:

• a plurality of cubbies, each cubby sized to enclose a food portion container in a cubby interior space, each cubby including a cubby door and a door actuation mechanism that can open and close the cubby door independently from that of other cubbies,
• a heating system that can controllably heat the food portion container within at least a first one of the plurality of cubbies;
• a cooling system that can perform cooling within at least a second one of the plurality of cubbies;
• an internal transport system including an end effector that temporarily couples to the food portion container and controllably moves the food portion container in a common transport space within the food station;
• and
• a control system that controls the heating, controls the opening and closing of the cubby door of each of the plurality of cubbies, and controls the movement of the internal transport system, the control system including a memory that stores information used by the control system;
• wherein the cubby door, when closed, closes off the corresponding cubby interior space sufficiently to enable the control system to control a temperature within that cubby to be substantially different from that of the common transport space within the food station.