Robotic kitchen assistant for frying including agitator assembly for shaking utensil
AssigneeMiso Robotics, Inc.
InventorsRyan Sinnet, Robert Anderson, William Werst
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A robotic kitchen assistant for frying includes a robotic arm, a fryer basket, and a robotic arm adapter assembly allowing the robotic arm to pick up and manipulate the fryer basket. The robotic arm adapter includes opposing gripping members to engage the fryer basket. A utensil adapter assembly is mounted to the handle of the fryer basket, and the opposing gripper members are actuated to capture a three-dimensional (3D) feature of the utensil adapter assembly. The robotic arm adapter assembly can include an agitator mechanism to shake the fryer basket or another utensil as desired. Related methods are also described.
Claims22
An automated kitchen fryer system for frying a plurality of food items in a fryer, the automated kitchen fryer system comprising:
- a robotic arm comprising a plurality of links, at least one joint, a proximal portion and a distal portion, and multiple degrees of freedom;
- a gripper assembly coupled to the distal portion for securely grasping a fryer basket;
- an agitator assembly mounted between the gripper and the distal portion of the robotic arm, the agitator assembly operable to shake the gripper assembly without substantially shaking the robotic arm;
- at least one sensor or camera;
- and
- a processor operable to instruct the robotic arm, gripper assembly and agitator assembly based on input from the at least one sensor or camera to:
- grab the fryer basket containing a basket of uncooked food items;
- move the fryer basket of uncooked food items into the fryer to cook;
- shake the gripper assembly and fryer basket;
- and
- remove the fryer basket of food items from the fryer.
In a robotic assisted kitchen fryer system comprising a robotic arm having a plurality of links separated by a joint, a proximal portion and a distal portion, multiple degrees of freedom, a fryer basket, and a fryer, a method for de-clumping a plurality of food items in the fryer comprises:
- grabbing the fryer basket containing the fryer basket of uncooked food items;
- cooking the food items by moving the fryer basket of uncooked food items into the fryer;
- and
- automatically recognizing clumping of the food items during the cooking step based on input from a camera or sensor and a programmed processor operable to locate and recognize clumping of the food items, and if clumped to shake the fryer basket to de-clump the food items.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.