Scalable automated cooking system having small footprint and reduced labor cost
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional automated cooking systems require excessive space and labor due to the need for multiple storage containers and heavy cooking apparatus, leading to inefficiencies in ingredient delivery and increased idle time.
Innovation Solution
An automated cooking system that uses mini vehicles and rail tracks to transport ingredients between storage and cooking stations, controlled by a computer system to optimize delivery schedules and reduce the need for stationary storage containers, allowing for flexible recipe execution and shared ingredient storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional automated cooking systems use full set of storage containers positioned above each cooking container, then ingredient delivery is reliable, but space requirement increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple cooking containers share a common set of storage containers positioned above them, rather than each cooking container having its own dedicated storage. This merging approach reduces the total number of storage containers needed while maintaining reliable ingredient delivery to all cooking stations.
Solution Approach 2:
The shared storage containers serve multiple cooking containers simultaneously, making the storage system universal. A single storage container can supply ingredients to different cooking containers as needed, reducing redundancy and optimizing space utilization.
2Productivity
If multiple cooking containers are used in the kitchen, then cooking capacity increases, but space requirement increases even more
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple cooking containers share common storage containers and can access the same ingredient supply, allowing increased cooking capacity without proportionally increasing storage space requirements. The shared infrastructure enables scalable expansion.
Solution Approach 2:
The system arranges storage containers vertically above cooking containers, utilizing vertical space rather than only horizontal space. This dimensional approach allows multiple cooking stations to share compact storage space, enabling higher cooking capacity in limited footprints.
3Ease of manufacture
If ingredients are subdivided into multiple storage containers, then storage organization improves, but sharing between cooking containers becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Storage containers are designed to serve multiple cooking containers universally, allowing the same ingredient to be accessed by different cooking stations. The system maintains organization through structured access while enabling flexible sharing across multiple cooking operations.
Data Source
AI summary
An automatic cooking system includes a computer system that stores recipes, cooking stations each comprising a cooking container that can cook food ingredients therein to produce a first cooked food, wherein the computer system can assign and schedule a plurality of dishes to be cooked at the cooking stations, storage containers configured to hold food ingredients, mini vehicles each carrying transport containers configured to hold the food ingredients, wherein the computer system can control at least some of movements of the mini vehicles in accordance to the recipes, a loading apparatus configured to load food ingredients from the storage stations to the transport containers on the mini vehicles, and an unloading apparatus that can transfer food ingredients from the transport containers on the mini vehicles to the cooking container at one of the cooking stations.