Systems and methods of bun holding and toasting use a bun dispenser and a toaster. The bun dispenser includes a bun holding cabinet in which a plurality of buns are held on shelves and each of the shelves include conveyors. A shuttle of the bun dispenser translates within at least one axis to align the shuttle with a shelf to receive a bun. A dispensing shelf of the bun dispenser receives the bun from the shuttle. A toaster receives the bun from the dispensing shelf and operates to toast the bun and dispense the toasted bun at a predetermined location.

An automated production system is disclosed herein. One aspect of the present technology, for example, is directed toward an automated system for the continuous production of baked bread. The system can include a priming assembly having a dry ingredients priming unit and a wet ingredients priming unit. The dry ingredients priming unit can include a vertically-oriented hopper and a screw positioned within an interior region of the hopper, wherein the first screw extends along the central longitudinal axis of the hopper and is configured to rotate about its own central longitudinal axis. The system can also include a mixing assembly, a forming assembly, an oven, and a controller. The controller can be coupled to the priming assembly and configured to adjust the amount of dry ingredients delivered from the hopper to the mixing chamber by controlling rotation of the screw.

A domestic baking device for baking a food product, in particular a flat bread, from a dough portion initially held in a portion capsule (2), the domestic baking device comprising a baking apparatus for baking the dough portion and a capsule-emptying apparatus (7) for removing the dough portion from a portion capsule (2), the capsule-emptying apparatus (7) having at least one force application element, which can be moved along a movement path, for applying force to, in particular deforming and/or moving, the portion capsule (2), which force application element can be driven by means of an electric motor, characterized in that the capsule-emptying apparatus (7) is assigned monitoring means for monitoring the portion capsule emptying operation, the monitoring means comprising comparing means, which are designed to monitor the curve of an electrical motor signal, in particular a current or voltage signal, over the movement path of the force application element for the reaching or exceeding of a reference signal (12), which changes over the movement path of the force application element, and to perform an action if the reference signal (12) is reached or exceeded.

Various examples are related to making flatbreads such as, e.g., a compact machine for making flatbread in a residential kitchen-type environment or other countertop, tabletop, or space limited applications. In one example, a machine includes a hopper including a mixing chamber configured for bulk addition of raw materials for preparation of flatbread pieces; a mixing assembly configured to blend the raw materials into a flatbread dough mixture; a dough piecing assembly configured to generate a dough piece from an extruded portion of the flatbread dough mixture; a lower platen configured to transfer the pressed flatbread dough piece to a cooking zone on the dough contacting surface for cooking; and a flatbread ejection station configured to remove a cooked flatbread piece from the machine. A second cooking zone can be included to further cook the pressed flatbread dough piece prior to ejection from the machine.

The present technology is to be used in used in pizzerias and other food restaurants to fully substitute manual labor in food processing. The present technology utilizes a modular principle for flexibility. It allows tuning the machine to (1) different dishes like pizza, chicken wings or hamburgers (2) different sizes and shapes of the room and (3) different orders capacity. The machine utilizes autonomous driving robots with autopilot for food logistics between ingredient stations and for the refilling of the stations with ingredients. Autonomous autopilot robot allows to precisely position the food to cook, e.g. pizza, with the ingredient station for precisely topping or other food processing. Precise interposition allows deep food customization by a client with the possibility of making drawings on food using ingredients. The matrix modular structure of the machine allows parallel orders execution. It is extremely beneficial in peak hours.

The present technology is to be used in used in pizzerias and other food restaurants to fully substitute manual labor in food processing. The present technology utilizes a modular principle for flexibility. It allows tuning the machine to (1) different dishes like pizza, chicken wings or hamburgers (2) different sizes and shapes of the room and (3) different orders capacity. The machine utilizes autonomous driving robots with autopilot for food logistics between ingredient stations and for the refilling of the stations with ingredients. Autonomous autopilot robot allows to precisely position the food to cook, e.g. pizza, with the ingredient station for precisely topping or other food processing. Precise interposition allows deep food customization by a client with the possibility of making drawings on food using ingredients. The matrix modular structure of the machine allows parallel orders execution. It is extremely beneficial in peak hours.

Apparatuses and methods for preparation of breads are described. The apparatuses include a press unit that can receive a dough ball and flatten the dough ball. The press unit includes a top plate and a bottom plate, each of which is in an inclined arrangement. The top plate swivels towards and away from the bottom plate. A dough ball is flattened between the top plate and the bottom plate. The bottom plate is heated, thereby heating a first face of the flattened dough in contact with the bottom plate. A flipper connected to at least one of the top plate and the bottom plate guides the flattened dough to a heated cooking surface. The guiding enables a second face of the flattened dough to come in contact with the cooking surface, thereby heating the flattened dough and forming the bread.

The present disclosure is directed to methods, computer program products, and computer systems of a multi-functional robotic platform including a robotic kitchen for calibration with either a joint state trajectory or in a coordinate system like a cartesian coordinate for mass installation of robotic kitchens, multi-mode operations of the robotic kitchen to provide different ways to prepare food dishes, and subsystems tailored to operate and interact with the various elements of a robotic kitchen, such as the robotic effectors, other subsystems, and containers, ingredients. Calibration verifications and minimanipulation library adaptation and adjustment of any serial model or different models provide scalability in the mass manufacturing of a robotic kitchen system, as well as methods as to how each manufactured robotic kitchen system meets the operational requirements. A robotic kitchen with multi-mode provides a robot mode, a collaboration mode and a user mode which a particular food dish can be prepared by the robot, a collaboration on sharing tasks between the robot and a user, or the robot serves as an aid for the user to prepare a food dish.

An apparatus (10) for controlling manufacture of baked products includes a piece forming device (16) configured to form dough pieces b.v reshaping dough lumps, a tunnel oven (22), at least one sensor (28) configured to detect parameters associated with the dough pieces; and a controller (40). The controller (40) correlates parameters associated with the dough pieces (80), target parameters of the baked products, ambient environmental conditions, and settings and conditions of the tunnel oven (22) to generate, based on a multivariate predictive control model, baking parameters of the tunnel oven (22) predicted by the controller to cause the tunnel oven to produce, from the dough pieces inserted into the tunnel oven, the baked products (90) with the target parameters. The controller (40) is also configured to control the tunnel oven (22) to run these baking parameters while the dough pieces are baked in the tunnel oven to produce the baked products having the target parameters.

An apparatus (10) for controlling manufacture of baked products includes a piece forming device (16) configured to form dough pieces b.v reshaping dough lumps, a tunnel oven (22), at least one sensor (28) configured to detect parameters associated with the dough pieces; and a controller (40). The controller (40) correlates parameters associated with the dough pieces (80), target parameters of the baked products, ambient environmental conditions, and settings and conditions of the tunnel oven (22) to generate, based on a multivariate predictive control model, baking parameters of the tunnel oven (22) predicted by the controller to cause the tunnel oven to produce, from the dough pieces inserted into the tunnel oven, the baked products (90) with the target parameters. The controller (40) is also configured to control the tunnel oven (22) to run these baking parameters while the dough pieces are baked in the tunnel oven to produce the baked products having the target parameters.