Israeli Firm Builds Robotic Kitchen That Makes 50 Pizzas An Hour

Hyper Robotics' kitchens can make fast food using autonomous robotic machines. The 40-feet kitchens have ovens, freezers, and metal detectors that don't need human help. The first kitchen was built for a Pizza Hut location in Israel, which can make 50 pizzas an hour, Kate Duffy reported for Business Insider.

Photo Insert: The three founders of Hyper Robotics, Udi Shamai Yariv Reches Harel Shafran, pose for a magazine feature.

These container-like kitchens are completely self-sufficient. They can store, prepare, cook, and clean without the help of a human. Hyper Robotics cofounder and CEO Udi Shamai told Insider that it takes one month to produce one kitchen and the company is aiming to build 10 a month. Production is still in the early stages.

"You can place it anywhere you want," Shamai said. "It's like a huge vending machine."

Each kitchen has autonomous freezers, ovens, and cleaning systems inside. Frozen food can be stored in the kitchen's freezers until the robots take it out, defrost it, and cook it for customers. With pizza dough, for example, the robots will stretch and proof it. From there, it goes into a dispensing area where the toppings drop onto the pizza.

The robots then slide the pizza into the oven. Once it's cooked, an autonomous cutting machine slices the pizza. Then it's boxed up and collected by the customer. Every 40 minutes, a non-chemical ozone water system cleans the entire kitchen, which Shamai said was the most challenging part of building the kitchen.

"It's bulletproof in terms of no insects can come in, and no bacteria," Shamai said. Metal detectors and AI cameras check the food for any mistakes.

If the electricity drops, then the whole kitchen is out-of-order, Shamai said. Technology isn't always reliable — if the electricity supply for the kitchen cuts out, then it's not able to operate, Shamai said. If there's a malfunction inside the machine, then the kitchen can still run because nearly every appliance is doubled, he said.

However, in the pizza kitchen, there's only one cutting machine so if that breaks, then that poses an issue, Shamai said. It could take an hour or two before someone fixes the problem. "There are so many things that could happen, but also in a regular store, so many things can happen," he added.

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