At a recent exhibition, a cooking robot attracted a lot of attention. This fully intelligent robot allows users to select or modify menus via a human-machine interaction screen on its chest. After loading washed vegetables into standard boxes and starting the program with a mouse, delicious dishes are automatically served within minutes. Furthermore, it can be remotely controlled; even from the office, one can start the home cooking robot via network or mobile phone.
Currently, this robot can cook dozens of dishes.
Looking like an ordinary glass cabinet or refrigerator, it can actually produce more than 300 dishes, including Kung Pao Chicken and Crystal Shrimp. A cooking robot, taller than a person, recently attracted many curious onlookers at an exhibition. "The taste can reach the standard of a star-rated restaurant," said a staff member on-site. As long as the prepared ingredients are put in, the robot can automatically identify what dish to make, and a master chef-level dish can be ready in about 3 minutes. The organizer stated that with the assistance of two people, the robot can produce dishes for 150 to 180 people within half an hour.
Individuals bravely adopt the innovation
It is understood that this cooking robot has not yet been launched into the civilian market. In fact, household cooking robots have made significant progress in China, and some ambitious individuals and forward-looking companies have successfully invented and produced cooking robots. A retired professor, Liu Changfa, living in Beijing and a former automation expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, invented a cooking robot that won the first prize in the second Beijing Invention Competition and made a splash at the 2009 Science and Technology Expo. The 1.5-meter-tall robot has a computer host in its legs, a computer display on its chest, and carries bottles and cans of oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and water on its shoulders. Its chest cavity contains solid seasonings such as salt, MSG, and sugar, and its abdomen contains an induction cooker and a pot for stir-frying. Simply put the ingredients to be stir-fried into the pot, click the program on the desktop with the mouse, and the window will display the measurements of oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. After clicking "OK," these items will automatically fall into the pot with an error of no more than 0.1 grams. Different people can change the data of various indicators and operation time according to their own taste. The robot has a mechanical hand with four fingers, which is equivalent to a human hand directly stir-frying in the pot, ensuring even cooking.
Currently, this "chef" can cook hundreds of exquisite dishes, including oil-braised prawns and braised pork. Liu Changfa stated that these recipes were compiled into computer operating language after repeated practice.
Aike recreates master craftsmanship
Liu Changfa once said that in order to make the robot produce satisfactory oil-braised prawns, he bought dozens of kilograms of prawns alone. This shows that the program is what determines the cooking robot's skill.
Similarly, the cooking robot "Aike" from Shenzhen also possesses extraordinary "skills." The "Aike" robot was funded by Shenzhen Fanxing Technology Company and commissioned to Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Robotics Institute for the research and development of the structure and control system, and to Yangzhou University's Tourism and Culinary College for the research of cooking technology and dish standardization. For more than two years, professionals in robotics and culinary arts worked together. First, the complex Chinese cooking processes and actions had to be decomposed and defined and described in a language understandable to both robotics and culinary professionals. Based on this, the core processes and actions of Chinese cooking were identified. Then, the robot's motion system was designed, including the cookware movement mechanism, feeding mechanism, fire control mechanism, and discharge mechanism.
Today, "Aike" has mastered the "eighteen martial arts" of Chinese cooking techniques and can freely shake the wok, toss, disperse, and pour, and can skillfully stir-fry, sauté, braise, and stew. The robot's control program also incorporates the recipes and experience of Chinese culinary masters. More than 50 invention patents have been obtained, including 6 world invention patents.
Chinese Culinary Association professionals commented that the dishes cooked by "Aike" have reached the level of professional chefs, even surpassing ordinary chefs, especially in stir-frying, with precise control of oil temperature and heat.
Promoting the standardization of Chinese cuisine
Liu Changfa believes that the greatest significance of the cooking robot lies in the realization of the standardization of Chinese cuisine. "Chinese cuisine is known worldwide for its color, aroma, and taste, but Chinese restaurants are difficult to develop into giant chain restaurants like McDonald's and KFC. This is because the expertise of Chinese cuisine is held by master chefs, who rely on experience to combine various ingredients, making standardization difficult." Liu Changfa said he plans to bring this robot to market to achieve automated robotic cooking of Chinese dishes. With standardized ingredient companies, simply combining various ingredients in a standard pot and directly using the robot, Chinese cuisine can achieve large-scale, standardized production.
Zhao Moming, director of Shenzhen Fanxing Technology Co., Ltd., also stated that the reason why McDonald's and KFC cannot develop Chinese cuisine is that they find it difficult to standardize Chinese cuisine. "Standardization is reflected in the ingredients, shape, and weight of the raw materials used in the dishes, as well as the calories, fiber, vitamins, etc., which are consistent after cooking. With standardization, there is a robot; standardization is the basis of the robot, so the dishes made by the robot are stable." Zhao Moming revealed that the "Aike" project R&D team has 21 dish designers, all of whom are Chinese culinary masters representing various cuisines, including halal cuisine.
It is understood that the price of ordinary cooking robots is tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan. When will such a price allow robots to enter ordinary people's homes?
Industry insiders said this is mainly because it is not mass-produced, so the cost cannot be reduced. Zhao Moming frankly admitted that the cooking robot is currently just a conceptual product, and the industrialization process has not yet been completed. He gave the example that when the first batch of mobile phones entered the Chinese market in 1992, they weighed 1.5 kilograms, were shaped like a spinning top, and cost 50,000 yuan. In just 10 years, it developed to the point where it could be bought for only 300 yuan, with far more powerful functions. "Our initial target is restaurants and canteens, followed by large enterprises, troops, and government agencies. Finally, it will enter homes, which is also the biggest goal of our company. Our greatest hope is that 1% of families in major Chinese cities will use this kind of robot within 10 years."
Will chefs be out of work because of this?
Zou Zhiping is the executive chef of Wuhan Anhua Grand Hotel. He was once recommended by Master Lu Yongliang, vice president of the China Cuisine Association, to Yangzhou University to design 10 Hubei dishes for the "Aike" robot. "Cooking robots can only do simple kitchen processes such as frying, stir-frying, cooking, and deep-frying, but more complex processes cannot be done by robots." Zou Zhiping said that, for example, Hubei's steamed dishes have relatively complex processes that robots cannot complete.
Can a cooking robot replace humans and produce authentic Hubei cuisine? Zou Zhiping stated that it's too early to say.
However, Chinese culinary master Sun Changbi stated that Hubei cuisine is quite particular about its flavors, mainly focusing on slightly spicy, salty, and fresh tastes. Its cooking methods primarily involve stewing, steaming, stir-frying, and braising. Sun Changbi believes that cooking robots are too mechanical and struggle to produce the authentic flavors of Hubei cuisine.
An industry insider stated that the greatest significance of cooking robots lies in improving the standardization and scientific nature of Chinese cuisine cooking. Years ago, Huizhou cuisine, one of the eight major Chinese cuisines, was the first to establish the "Huizhou Cuisine Standard System Table." The essence of Huizhou cuisine standardization is to use the entire cooking process as the main thread, implementing scientific, standardized, and regulated practices into the dish preparation. This gradually moves cooking away from the ambiguity and arbitrariness of traditional manual operations, towards precision and standardization. All aspects of Huizhou cuisine production strictly adhere to unified standards, each step using quantitative indicators to ensure consistent food quality, thus facilitating large-scale, mechanized, and factory-style production. This is also the necessary path for the revitalization of Chinese cuisine.
A complementary dialectical relationship exists between stir-fry robots and culinary standards: the advent of stir-fry robots can ensure the consistent quality of dishes; while the promulgation of culinary standards, in turn, ensures the stir-fry robot's requirements for standardized raw materials and other aspects.
Some industry insiders believe that even if cooking robots become widely used in the future, chefs will not be unemployed, because the human factor will always be paramount. No matter how capable a stir-fry robot is, it is ultimately invented, debugged, and applied by humans. After using stir-fry robots, the workload of chefs will become even heavier. The responsible use, maintenance, and development of stir-fry robots is a long and arduous task.