Maka Mia Pizza opens robotic pizza kiosks
A Kentucky-based pizza retailer is holding the human associates with its automated store model.
Máka Mia Pizza is introducing its new Mia V4.5 Robotic Pizza Shop in the U.S. market, in partnership with a robotic pizza-making system from Europe. This new process creates pizza in less than three minutes using Maka Mia’s proprietary ingredients and recipe with precision robotics.
The Robotic Pizza Shop features two stone hearth ovens that will cook and serve pizzas in less than three minutes, without human assistance. According to Maka Mia Pizza, the automated store is designed for retailers with significant foot traffic, including college and university communities, airports, hotels, amusement parks, convenient stores, and stadiums and sports facilities.
Maka Mia Pizza is scheduling demos across the U.S., to give potential food service industry and retail partners the chance for a hands-on presentation and taste test. Currently, automated stores are operating in more than 30 locations across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, and Tennessee.
"This is a perfect opportunity for retailers looking to increase revenue with limited labor requirements while still delivering a premium product," said Matt Maas, founder & CEO of Máka Mia Pizza. "The quality is hard to believe until you experience it for yourself. I challenge anyone to match the total package of quality, convenience and advanced technology of Máka Mia's Robotic Pizza Shop."
Robotic kiosks spread in food service
Automated stores running on robotic technology are slowly popping up across different food service retailers. For example, RoboBurger, a fully autonomous robotic hamburger restaurant, operates fully autonomous burger vending robots at St John's University in Queens, N.Y. and the Newport Centre Simon mall location.
Operating like an automated vending machine, the unit cooks restaurant-quality, freshly grilled burgers from scratch. Utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), RoboBurger is a self-controlling kitchen designed to include all the processes of a restaurant at a fraction of the size. It measures 12 square feet, plugs into a traditional wall socket, and has a refrigerator, as well as an automated griddle and cleaning system.
And Jamba is continuing to expand its test of an automated kiosk that dispenses made-on-demand blended smoothies. The specialty foodservice retailer is opening “Jamba by Blendid” autonomous robotic kiosk locations in collaboration with food automation platform provider Blendid. The kiosks leverage machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence for the contactless dispensing of on-demand, customized, blended smoothies.
And in a similar effort, robotic barista technology provider Briggo has been expanding the availability of its Briggo Connected Coffee solution. Customers can order coffees and other customizable drinks ahead via the Briggo Coffee mobile app or from one of multiple touchscreen kiosks.