Final week, Mexican meals fast-casual chain Chipotle lifted the curtain on a brand new avocado processing robotic referred to as the Autocado. The brand new prototype robotic, developed in partnership with meals robotics innovation studio Vebu, will slice, core, and peel avocados earlier than human arms mash them into Chipotle’s well-known avocado dip.
The robotic is being trialed on the Chipotle Domesticate Heart in Irvine, California. Based on Chipotle, the brand new machine might probably lower guacamole prep time by 50%, which they are saying will assist restaurant employees focus extra on customer support and hospitality.
The Autocado works by having an worker load it with a case of ripe avocados, as much as 25 lbs at a time. Every avocado is then vertically oriented and moved to the processing gadget, the place it’s halved, cored, and peeled. The flesh of the fruit is gathered in a stainless-steel bowl, prepared for handbook mashing and seasoning.
If Chipotle decides to deploy the Autocado broadly throughout its restaurant places, it might save a major quantity of person-hours that the chain spends annually producing guacamole. Chipotle expects to make use of 4.5 million circumstances of avocados throughout its US, Canada, and Europe retailers this yr, the equal of greater than 100 million kilos of fruit. The corporate believes the cobotic’s precision processing might enhance yield and scale back meals waste, resulting in vital value financial savings.
For Vebu (previously Wavemaker), the deal is a pleasant feather in its hat for a corporation finest recognized for the Flippy burger robotic. Chipotle introduced they’d spend money on Vebu by its Domesticate Subsequent enterprise fund as a part of the deal. This isn’t the primary robot-oriented funding for Domesticate Subsequent, which has invested in Hyphen, a maker of automated makelines for eating places.
You’ll be able to take a look at the Autocado in motion beneath.
