Chef Robotics

Chef operates using a RaaS, or robotics as a service, model. RaaS essentially allows customers to rent robots for a flat yearly fee rather than needing to purchase them outright like a CapEx model would. The rental fee is all-inclusive, covering everything from end-to-end support, 24/7 real-time monitoring by our team of engineers, hardware and software upgrades, and onsite customer support. This model is necessary since Chef's innovation is software to deal with high-mix. Operating on a RaaS model ensures that customers always have the latest and greatest technology at their fingertips. Often times with a traditional CapEx model, customers will make a significant investment upfront only to end up with equipment that is outdated within a year or two after purchase. With included upgrades, maintenance, and a short leasing period, a RaaS models allows for a much lower cost and lower risk investment that ensures customers don't get stuck with obsolete equipment. Further, we win when our customers win. Using a RaaS model directly incentivizes us to continue developing the most intelligent software and functional hardware on the market to keep our customers happy, and in turn to keep our company moving forward on a path of growth. Check out the Robotics as a Service page on our website for more on why we've chosen to operate on this model, linked here: https://lnkd.in/gEX2cbyz

The A3 - Association for Advancing Automation Business Forum is quickly approaching, and we're excited to be speaking at the event! The forum will bring together robotics, vision & imaging, motion control & motors, and artificial intelligence industry professionals to share insights on improving and growing business. The event will take place from January 20 - 22, 2025 in Orlando, Florida and we hope to see you there! https://lnkd.in/geJGiQ8D

Embodied AI’s performance is based on quality and raw quantity data from the physical world. The AI System that is trained on the most and best data will simply perform the best, and this is especially true for food since food is so highly variable. Every ingredient is so radically different that vast amounts of data from robots in production are needed to train our food manipulation model to be able to reliably, flexibly, and consistently manipulate any ingredient no matter how it’s cooked or cut all while not damaging it, meeting throughput, placing into the right part of a tray, and not spilling in transit. We've created one system that can adapt to work with a massive variety of different ingredients by utilizing the vast library of data that we've collected in the field. The end result is a simple user experience, where the robot's human operator only needs to select the ingredient the robot should run on it's touch screen interface and let the robot do the rest of the meal plating process from there.

When it comes to food manufacturing, different forms of labor offer different benefits. Traditional machinery does a good job of doing repetitive low-mix work, but falls short when variety or many different SKUs enter the mix. Humans are great for adaptability and flexibility, but easily become fatigued and can be hard to source. This is why AI-enabled robotics are changing the game; with their ability to both tirelessly carry out repetitive tasks with precision and adapt to a high level of variability, they offer the best of both worlds. Check out the article below for more insights from Chef on how AI-enabled robotics compare to other forms of labor.

We had a blast at our annual holiday party! On Saturday, the Chef team got dressed up and headed out to The Treasury in San Francisco where good times ensued at the historic 1916 Beaux Arts space. We're grateful for all the fun memories we get to make with our wonderful team!

Curious why traditional automation doesn't work for high-mix food manufacturing? It's a question we get asked a lot, so we wrote article in Food Industry Executive to explain when it makes sense to use traditional automation, when modern AI-enabled robotics are necessary, and how humans fit into the picture. Check it out at the link below!

"What’s missing here? If your RTE facility operates in this fashion, maybe consider a couple of cobots to do some of the dull, repetitious work—and give employees more creative work." The addition of cobots to a production facility doesn't eliminate jobs altogether, but rather fills a gap in labor and elevates employees to focus on more skilled tasks. Thank you Food Engineering Magazine for including us in this article on the use of cobots in production facilities! https://lnkd.in/gwm8uKMc

It's true that historically humans have had some advantages over machines, namely in their abilities to be flexible and adaptable. So how can robots stack up? By being as human-like as possible. This is why recent developments in AI are changing the game for robotics and automation. AI equips machines with the ability to reason like a human would, allowing machines to learn from real-world data points and make logical decisions based on these learnings. So while traditional machines used for automation have only been capable of completing one specific task each, modern advancements in AI are enabling robots to be able to complete a huge variety of tasks all via one system. More on how modern robotics are automating labor in food factories, and how this is creating more interesting jobs for workers, here: https://lnkd.in/emZYQzAF

The global Robotics Platform and Food Robotics markets are projected to see huge growth over the next 10 years, as these studies from Precedence Research outline. We're grateful that our public launch in July of this year is mentioned in both studies as an example of a robotics company working to automate manufacturing processes and address the worldwide labor shortages in the food industry. Check out both of the studies here: https://lnkd.in/gpszfcbi https://lnkd.in/geaPckCq

We're thrilled to have Justine join the recruiting team at Chef! Her work will be instrumental in growing our world class team of roboticists and other professionals who are scaling the advent of intelligent machines throughout the world.