Robotics

Pizzaiola aims to robotize the humble pizzeria

View 2 Images
An apparently tie-dye-clad Pizzaiola robot sets about making a pizza
Nala Robotics
An apparently tie-dye-clad Pizzaiola robot sets about making a pizza
Nala Robotics
Operators can choose between different types of pizza ovens, including traditional, conveyor-style and brick
Nala Robotics

Opening a pizzeria could soon be as simple as leasing a small business space, then sticking a robot in there. That's the idea behind the Pizzaiola system, which takes human cooks and other kitchen staff out of the equation.

Manufactured by Illinois-based Nala Robotics, Pizzaiola is essentially a 12 x 12-foot (3.7 x 3.7-m) self-contained kitchen that incorporates food storage/preparation areas, ovens, and last but not least, a 7-axis robotic arm that moves throughout the space.

Customers can place orders verbally through an adjacent self-serve kiosk, or through a human cashier who electronically relays orders to the kitchen. Additionally, orders can be placed online for home delivery – a task which is already being performed by robots.

Whatever the case, the robot proceeds to choose between four types of dough, four sauces, plus 35 cheeses and other toppings. It then presses the dough, adds the sauce and toppings, then cooks, slices and boxes the pizza. According to the company, the robot can prepare up to 50 pizzas an hour, in 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 or 18-inch sizes.

Operators can choose between different types of pizza ovens, including traditional, conveyor-style and brick
Nala Robotics

Business owners can add other food preparation stations – along with appliances such as grills or deep fryers – then train Pizzaiola's machine-learning-based operating system to prepare foods like burgers, fries, wings, pasta and salads. Whatever it's making, the robot is claimed to check over 1,200 food quality and safety parameters every microsecond.

Leasing packages for Pizzaiola start at US$7,000 a month. You can see the system in use, in the following video.

Source: Nala Robotics

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Flipboard
  • LinkedIn
9 comments
paul314
So much for the venerable art of tossing the dough. The robot version is more like a tortilla press.
Erik
Until they can make a pizza better then a person this is pretty worthless in my opinion.
P51d007
Once the rest of the "fast food" industry gets robotics going, say goodbye to all of those entry level jobs that teenagers starting out with
NO experience could get. Yeah, that 15-20 dollar an hour wage was the fuel, to get robotics in the food industry.
Claudio
To me this ain't pizza, just a fast food lookalike, it's more AP than AI: Artificial Pizza, not Artificial Intelligence ;-)
And, BTW, they can't even spell "restaurants", they wrote "resturant" at the end of the video... so much for the AI in the name
Funkgroover
Automated Pizza machines / vending machines have been around for a while, so what's special about this one?
FB36
I think all (fast) food being prepared by robots would be very beneficial as it means high speed, dependable standardized product quality, sanitation!
Of course it would be bad for jobs but rejecting/preventing greatly beneficial progress just to protect jobs would be very bad for humanity!
Why we need everybody to have work exactly anyway? Maybe what needs to be done is humanity preparing itself for a future of greatly reduced work!
JPAR
That pizza looks awful - really unappetizing.
Reality is that Robots save time, and there will always be work in some form for humans - we just cant see it yet. We need robots to support the health and care industry, reduce costs and make it available to more people as current costs that rely on humans is just too high to maintain. We need to free up the workforce if we intend to expand beyond our insignifcant home planet.
ljaques
Judging by what came out of that oven, they have a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long way to go there before it makes any money.
Dirk Scott
I have eaten pizza from a robot pizzeria in France. It was vile.