System with kitchen appliances for coordinated cooking and method
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional kitchen appliances, such as mixers, have limited functionality and installation space compared to food processors, making them unsuitable for tasks like kneading dough due to low rotational speed and torque, and are not optimized for simultaneous preparation of multiple dishes.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising multiple kitchen appliances, including a food processor and a mixer, with an electronic resource storage facility, recipe storage, and an optimization device that subdivides recipes into process steps, allowing for the selection of appropriate appliances and optimization of preparation sequences to achieve specific goals like speed or resource efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a mixer is used for food preparation, then the installation space is small, but the rotational speed and torque are low making it unsuitable for tasks like kneading dough
Solution Approach 1:
The food processor is designed to perform multiple functions including kneading dough, chopping ingredients, mixing, and heating within a single appliance. The vessel can accommodate different tools (stirring and cutting tool, kneading tool) and the system can execute various process steps (kneading, chopping, heating, mixing) that were previously requiring separate appliances, thereby achieving multi-functionality in one device.
2Productivity
If multiple kitchen appliances are used for simultaneous dish preparation, then cooking efficiency improves, but resource management and coordination complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system combines multiple kitchen appliances (food processor, mixer, oven, microwave, kettle, hob, steam cooker, refrigerator, freezer) into a coordinated networked system. The central control unit integrates resource management, recipe storage, and process step coordination across all appliances, merging their functions into a unified system that automatically manages resources and coordinates operations to prepare multiple dishes simultaneously without increasing user burden.
3Power
If a food processor with high rotational speed and torque is used, then it can perform various tasks like kneading and chopping, but the installation space increases compared to a mixer
Solution Approach 1:
The food processor is designed to perform multiple functions including kneading dough, chopping ingredients, mixing, and heating within a single appliance. The vessel can accommodate different tools (stirring and cutting tool, kneading tool) and the system can execute various process steps (kneading, chopping, heating, mixing) that were previously requiring separate appliances, thereby achieving multi-functionality in one device.
4Ease of operation
If recipes are prepared manually step-by-step, then flexibility is maintained, but time consumption and user effort increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables automated execution of recipe process steps across multiple appliances. The central control unit stores recipes as sequences of process steps with assigned appliances and parameters, then automatically controls each appliance to execute its assigned steps without continuous user intervention. The system self-manages resource allocation, timing coordination, and parameter settings, significantly reducing user effort and preparation time while maintaining recipe flexibility through programmable process sequences.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a system comprising at least two kitchen appliances (1, 12, 13, 14); an electronic resource storage device (16) for storing a list of kitchen appliances included in the system and/or for storing the number of users available for preparing one or more dishes; a recipe storage device (17) for storing a recipe for preparing a dish; an optimization device (18) configured to optimize the preparation of one or more dishes, taking into account information for the system that includes a recipe; and a control device (19) for preparing one or more dishes according to a process sequence optimized by the optimization device. The invention further relates to a method for preparing a dish using the system.