Robots chefs run California restaurant and serve burgers in less than 30 seconds
The robot-run burger restaurant in Silicon Valley delivers freshly made burgers with human servers, highlighting a future with robotic co-workers.
A newly-opened burger restaurant in California is run by robots and claims to deliver hot food to your table in less than 30 seconds. Burgerbots in California’s Silicon Valley, build by ABB Robotics, uses two assembly droids which work together to assemble burger patties with superhuman speed.
“The vision was to bring consistency, transparency, and efficiency to food service. For restaurant owners, it means better visibility of food costs, more accurate forecasting and – ultimately – better decision making," BurgerBots founder Elizabeth Truong said.
The burger making process is quick but precise. A freshly cooked patty is deposited over the burger bun and then ferried along a conveyor belt with a QR code. One of the robots, called the Flexpicker, uses the QR code data to select the toppings including special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onion for the burger.
Then YuMi, the other robot, puts the finishing touches on the meal and in exactly 27 seconds the food is ready to be eaten.
Watch the robots in action here:
According to 2025 figures from the World Economic Forum, automation and AI could wipe out around 92 million human jobs by 2030, with roles like cashiers and fast-food workers topping the list of most vulnerable occupations.
However, the burger restaurant does not aim to run humans out of the business. The food might be created by the machines but is delivered to customers by human servers.
“When we asked the hospitality industry, 89% of managers and 73% of workers said they are open to the integration of robotics to automate tasks within their operations,” Marc Segura, president of ABB Robotics, said.
The Burgerbots founder claims that soon humans will have robotronic co-workers and this can be the start of that era. “In the next five years, I believe that most restaurants will have some form of robotic automation, whether it’s back-of-house preparation, assembly, or even front-of-house service. It will become less of a novelty and more of a necessity," she said.
