Problem Description:
The quick-service restaurant industry has been hampered by staffing concerns over the last decade. Only 54% of employees in the quick-service food industry reach 90 days of working before quitting, and there is a near-permanent shortage of employees. Additionally, employees in this sector have some of the highest burn-out rates in the entire restaurant industry. This combination of high staff turnover and low staff morale contributes to elevated staffing costs, and a decrease in customer satisfaction when visiting quick-service restaurants.
Quick-service sandwich restaurants have not been immune to these staffing shortfalls. Much of the work done in these restaurants is repetitive pick-and-place tasks to assemble a sandwich, as ingredient preparation is often done by larger distributors or prepared ahead of service. The repetitive nature of these tasks has raised the possibility of Robotics and Automation to alleviate staffing concerns, with widespread interest from restaurant operators. Overall, the food robotics industry is expected to grow to a valuation of $9 billion by 2034.
The SNAAK (Smart Nutritional Automated Assembly Kiosk) system aims to address these staffing issues and provide quick-service sandwich restaurants with a reliable and consistent sandwich assembly solution. SNAAK takes customer orders and autonomously assembles their desired sandwich using pre-prepared ingredients. Being a standalone kiosk system, it is easily integrable into any existing restaurant.
Use Case:
A use case for SNAAK is visualized in the below figure. Emmanuel is hungry and is looking to eat a sandwich for lunch. To begin, he approaches SNAAK, and accesses the integrated tablet on the kiosk. On this tablet, he is able to select his desired ingredients, guided by the nutritional information that is displayed for each ingredient. After selecting the order, Emmanuel opens a small door on the front of SNAAK and places a clean tray in the designated area. Finally, he starts the assembly using the tablet interface, and the LED on the kiosk changes from green to yellow, indicating that the door is locked. After he has selected his order, the needed ingredients to construct the desired sandwich are compared to a database of the current inventory of ingredients to ensure that SNAAK has the resources needed to build the sandwich.
Once the system confirms it has the needed ingredients, it begins the assembly of the sandwich. For each ingredient, the arm first automatically attaches the desired end effector. There are separate end effectors for shredded and sliced ingredients, as well as meat and dairy products. The arm then picks and places the desired quantity of the ingredient on the sandwich. After each ingredient is placed, overhead cameras and scales under the sandwich preparation area confirm the successful placement of the ingredient, and SNAAK determines the optimal placement of the next ingredient in order to maintain a balanced sandwich. This process is repeated for all ingredients until successfully placed on the sandwich. Upon completion of the sandwich, the built in LED on SNAAK turns back to green from yellow, indicating that the door is unlocked. Similarly, the tablet displays a message conveying the successful completion of the sandwich, as well as the corresponding nutritional information. Emmanuel is then free to open the door, and remove the tray with the sandwich. He is then free to enjoy his custom made sandwich, and returns his tray to the kitchen staff when finished.
