Episode 222 | The Future of Food Prep Automation

Rajat Bhageria, Founder & CEO, Chef Robotics joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the future of automation in food industry and the impact of rising labor costs.

Chef is addressing the critical labor shortage in the food industry that is being driven by higher labor costs and increased turnover through automation. They’ve developed and deployed robots that are capable of performing assembly and plating tasks with high precision and consistency by leveraging computer vision. 

Their robots are designed to be seamlessly integrated into existing production lines, occupying the same footprint as a human worker. Chef’s systems can handle a variety of food items and are particularly adept at “scoopable” foods. 

To enable food packaging companies the ability implement the automation system without a high CapEx investment, Chef is deploying the system as a “robotics as a service” model as a yearly subscription with ongoing software and hardware updates.

Companies that have implemented a Chef system have seen a 20% increase in production capacity, significant reduction in food waste (giveaway) and improved food portion consistency.

Episode Chapters

0:00 California Fast Food Minimum Wage

4:36 Chef

6:31 Packaging and Plating 

10:33 Chef Autonomous System

23:50 Food Portion Consistency

26:25 Chef Commercial Model

30:50 Customer Results

33:07 Why Chef?

35:06 Installing Chef

37:08 Inspiration Behind Chef

39:58 Food Packaging Automation

42:59 Key Takeaways

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