At a recent exhibition, the cooking robot attracted the attention of many visitors. The robot is fully intelligent. Through the human-computer interaction screen on its chest, you can select or modify the menu, and then put the washed dishes into the standard box, and start the program with the mouse. After a few minutes, the delicious dishes will be automatically sent out. Not only that, it can also realize remote control. Even in the office, it can also start the cooking robot at home through the network or mobile phone.

At present, this robot can cook dozens of dishes.

From the appearance, it looks like a common glass cabinet or refrigerator, but it can make more than 300 dishes such as Kung Pao chicken, crystal shrimp, etc. A cooking robot with more than one person tall has attracted many curious visitors at an exhibition a few days ago. "The taste can meet the standard of star-level hotels." The staff at the scene said that as long as the prepared ingredients are put in, the robot can automatically identify what dishes to cook, and you can eat master-level dishes in about 3 minutes. The exhibitor said that with the help of two people, the robot could make dishes for 150 to 180 people in half an hour.

People eat "crab" bravely

It is understood that this kind of cooking robot has not yet been put into the civilian market. In fact, domestic cooking robots have made great progress in China. Some people with lofty ideals and forward-looking companies have invented and made cooking robots successfully. Liu Changfa, a retired professor who lives in Beijing, was an expert in automation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His cooking robot won the special prize of the second Beijing Invention Competition, and made a big splash at the 2009 Science and Technology Expo. The robot with a height of 1.5 meters has a computer host on its legs, a computer screen in front of its chest, bottles and cans of oil, soy sauce, vinegar, water, etc. on its shoulder, and solid condiments such as salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar, etc. are hidden in its chest, The belly mounted induction cooker and pot are used for cooking. Just put the dishes to be fried into the pot, click the program on the desktop with the mouse, and the measurement of oil, salt, sauce and vinegar will be displayed in the window. After clicking OK, these items will automatically fall into the pot, with an error of no more than 0.1 g. Different people can change the data and operation time of various indicators according to their tastes. The robot has a four-finger manipulator, which is equivalent to a human hand directly frying vegetables in the pot. The cooking is very uniform.

At present, this "cook" can cook hundreds of exquisite dishes, such as braised prawns, Braised pork belly, etc. Liu Changfa said that these recipes were written into computer operating languages after repeated practice.

"Aike" reappears master craftsmanship

Liu Changfa once said that in order to make robots make satisfactory stewed prawns, he bought dozens of kilograms of prawns alone. It can be seen that it is the program written that determines the cooking robot technology.

Coincidentally, the "craft" of the cooking robot "Aike" born in Shenzhen is also different: the robot "Aike" is funded by Shenzhen Fanxing Technology Co., Ltd., and entrusted the research personnel of the Robotics Research Institute of Shanghai Jiaotong University to carry out the research of structure and control system, and the School of Tourism and Cuisine of Yangzhou University to carry out the research of cooking technology and cuisine standardization. For more than two years, robot professionals and cooking professionals have worked together to tackle key problems. First of all, it is necessary to decompose and define the complex Chinese cooking process and actions, and describe them in a language that can be understood by both robot and cooking majors; On this basis, find out the core techniques and actions of Chinese cooking; After that, the robot motion system is designed, including the pot action mechanism, the feeding mechanism, the fire control mechanism, the discharge mechanism, etc.

Today, "Aiko" has mastered the "18 kinds of martial arts" of Chinese cooking technology, can freely shake the pot, tilt the spoon, scatter and pour, and can also skillfully fry, fry, fry, burn, fry, etc. The robot control program also incorporates the formula and experience of Chinese cooking masters. At present, it has obtained more than 50 invention patents, including 6 world invention patents.

The professional of the Chinese Cuisine Association commented on "Aiko" that the dishes cooked by robots have reached the level of professional cooking chefs, even exceeded that of ordinary chefs, especially the excellent cooking skills, and the accurate grasp of the mild temperature of oil.

Promote the standardization of Chinese food

Liu Changfa believes that the greatest significance of cooking robots lies in the standardization of Chinese food. "Chinese food is famous all over the world, but it is difficult for Chinese restaurants to become giant chain restaurants like McDonald's and KFC. Because Chinese food skills are in the hands of chefs, it is difficult for chefs to match various materials according to experience, and it is difficult to achieve standardization." Liu Changfa said that he is ready to put this robot into the market to realize automatic robot cooking Chinese food. Standardized food companies can realize large-scale and standardized production of Chinese food as long as they put all kinds of materials together in a standard pot and implement it directly by robots.

Zhao Moming, director of Shenzhen Fanxing Technology Co., Ltd., also said that the reason why McDonald's and KFC could not develop Chinese food was that it was difficult for them to standardize Chinese food. "Standardization is reflected in the materials, shapes, weight of raw materials used in dishes, and the calories, cellulose, vitamins, etc. it contains are consistent after cooking. With standardization, there is a robot. Standardization is a foundation for robots, so the dishes made by robots are stable." Zhao Moming revealed that the "Aike" project research and development team has 21 dish designers, all of whom are Chinese cooking masters, It is the representative chef of various cuisines, even Muslim cuisine.

It is understood that the price of general cooking robots is tens of thousands of yuan or even more than 100000 yuan. When can such a price make robots enter ordinary people's homes?

Industry insiders said that this was mainly because it was not mass production, so the cost could not be reduced. Zhao Moming said frankly that the cooking robot is only a concept product now, and the industrialization process has not yet been completed. He pointed out, for example, that when the first batch of mobile phones entered the Chinese market in 1992, they weighed 1.5 kilograms and were shaped like a rotating head. Their price was 50000 yuan. In only 10 years, it has developed to be available for only 300 yuan, and its functions are far more powerful than before. "Our first design targets are restaurants and canteens, followed by large enterprises, troops and institutions. Finally, it will enter the family, which is also the biggest goal of our company. Our biggest hope is that 1% of families in China's major cities will use this robot within 10 years."

Will the cook be laid off

Zou Zhiping is the executive chef of Wuhan Anhua Hotel. He was once recommended to Yangzhou University by Master Lu Yongliang, Vice President of the Chinese Cuisine Association, to design 10 courses of Hubei cuisine for robot "Aike". "Cooking robots can only do simple kitchen processes such as frying, stir-frying, cooking and frying, but robots can't do more complex processes.

Can cooking robots replace people to produce pure Hubei cuisine? In this regard, Zou Zhiping said that it is still hard to say.

However, Sun Changbi, a Chinese culinary master, said that the flavor of Hubei cuisine is more exquisite, mainly with slight spicy and salty dishes, and its production process is mainly simmer, steam, burn, braise, etc. Sun Changbi believes that the cooking robot is too mechanized to make the pure flavor of Hubei cuisine.

An insider said that the greatest significance of the cooking robot lies in improving the standardization and scientization of Chinese cuisine cooking. A few years ago, Anhui Cuisine Cuisine, one of the eight major cuisines, took the lead in formulating the Table of Anhui Cuisine Cuisine Standard System. The essence of Anhui Cuisine Cuisine standardization is to take the entire process of cooking as the main line, implement scientific, standardized and standardized cuisine production, gradually make cooking get rid of the fuzziness and randomness formed by traditional manual operations, move towards precision, move towards standards, and make all Anhui Cuisine Cuisine production links strictly follow unified standards, Each step of operation adopts quantitative indicators to ensure the consistent quality of food, so as to facilitate the realization of large-scale, mechanized and industrialized production, which is also the only way to revitalize Chinese food.

There is a dialectical relationship between the cooking robot and the dish standard, that is, the birth of the cooking robot can ensure the uniform quality of the dishes; The promulgation of the cuisine standards can also ensure the requirements of the cooking robot for standard raw materials and other aspects.

Some insiders believe that even if the cooking robot is widely used in the future, the cook will not be laid off, because the human factor is always the first, and the cooking robot is capable again, after all, it is still invented, debugged and applied by people. After using the cooking robot, the task of the cooks will be more onerous. There is a long way to go to make good use of the cooking robot, protect the cooking robot, and develop the cooking robot.