Robotic burger joint comes to Simon mall location
An automated “restaurant in miniature” is serving up hamburgers at the Newport Centre, a Simon mall in Jersey City, N.J.
RoboBurger, a fully autonomous robotic burger chef, launched Friday, March 25, with a ribbon-cutting at the Newport Centre. 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.
The robot uses a five-step cooking process designed to be similar to what chefs use in quick-service restaurants. RoboBurger grills the patty, toasts the bun, dispenses the selected condiments, assembles the burger, and delivers it hot in about six minutes, for a price of $6.99.
Robots bring change to quick service
RoboBurger is not the only quick-service restaurant retailer attempting to streamline operations, and even store design, with robotic technology. For example, Jamba is continuing to expand its test of an automated kiosk that dispenses made-on-demand blended smoothies.
The specialty foodservice retailer is opening two new “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.
The new locations are at Georgia College in Milledgeville, Georgia and Kennesaw State University in Marietta, Georgia. These mark the first Jamba by Blendid openings on college campuses, expanding beyond the current kiosk pilot locations in the Stonewood Center in Downey, Calif., and the first pilot location, launched at a Walmart store in Dixon, Calif., in December 2020.
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. The Briggo coffee kiosk has been implemented at a Whole Foods store in Houston. Briggo also operates a fully-automated robotic coffee bar, or “Coffee Haus,” inside Terminal 3 of the San Francisco International Airport and two locations at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Austin, Texas.
According to RoboBurger, its automated burger-grilling robotic restaurants will soon be opening in airports, malls, colleges, offices, factories, and military bases across the country. RoboBurger is the first hot food vending machine approved at the gold food standard for safety by the National Sanitary Foundation at the standard NSF/ANSI 25.
"I started RoboBurger in my garage 17 years ago, and now there couldn't be a better time to bring it to life and have everyone experience it," said Audley Wilson, RoboBurger co-founder and CEO. "RoboBurger gives everyone freshly grilled, delicious burgers - while ensuring a safe, contactless experience. RoboBurger always comes out piping hot and is never pre-cooked and kept warm."