A robot vision supervisor system for use with industrial robots being placed with average home consumers or at restaurants that is capable of guiding the robot to its horning position for initial homing or when a loss of reference has occurred. Further the robot vision supervisor is able to detect presence of unidentified foreign objects in the workspace and guide the robot to navigate around and prevent collisions. Image processing algorithms are used with primary, orthogonal and cross camera arrays to increase reliability and accuracy of the robot vision supervisor. Lookup tables of images are captured and stored by controller for discretized positions in the full robot workspace when robot is in known good calibration to compare with images during regular operation for detecting anomalies.

A remote temperature monitoring system includes a first unit operatively connected to one or more temperature sensors for sensing the temperature of one or more materials or food items being cooked or heated. The first unit transmits the sensed temperature to a second unit that is located remotely from the first unit during heating. The second unit is programmable with the desired temperature and/or heating parameters of the item. By monitoring the temperature status of the item over time, the system determines when the food has reached the desired temperature or degree of cooking, and notifies the user.

A remote temperature monitoring system includes a first unit operatively connected to one or more temperature sensors for sensing the temperature of one or more materials or food items being cooked or heated. The first unit transmits the sensed temperature to a second unit that is located remotely from the first unit during heating. The second unit is programmable with the desired temperature and/or heating parameters of the item. By monitoring the temperature status of the item over time, the system determines when the food has reached the desired temperature or degree of cooking, and notifies the user.

A method for operating an automated food making apparatus having a motor, actuator arm, and an apparatus. The apparatus may be a paddle with flexible fins. The method rotates the paddle with a pin-shaft mechanism to dispense an ingredient placed in a canister, controls the motor automatically based on weight sensor readings, and locates a position of the actuator arm with position sensors. The same motor dispenses ingredients from a plurality of canisters. The method may have a plurality of paddle rotation and weight measurement steps until a target weight is reached. The plurality of paddle rotation steps may be unidirectional or bidirectional paddle rotation. The paddle may be rotated according to one or more paddle rotation algorithms, an error recovery algorithm, or different algorithms based on the amounts of ingredients remaining in the canister. The paddle may be rocked until the target weight is achieved.

A method for operating an automated food making apparatus having a motor, actuator arm, and an apparatus. The apparatus may be a paddle with flexible fins. The method rotates the paddle with a pin-shaft mechanism to dispense an ingredient placed in a canister, controls the motor automatically based on weight sensor readings, and locates a position of the actuator arm with position sensors. The same motor dispenses ingredients from a plurality of canisters. The method may have a plurality of paddle rotation and weight measurement steps until a target weight is reached. The plurality of paddle rotation steps may be unidirectional or bidirectional paddle rotation. The paddle may be rotated according to one or more paddle rotation algorithms, an error recovery algorithm, or different algorithms based on the amounts of ingredients remaining in the canister. The paddle may be rocked until the target weight is achieved.

An automated food making apparatus having a carousel and at least one canister. The at least one canister may include a disposable bag having ingredients therein, with the disposable bag being disposed at an upper portion of the canister. The at least one canister may further include a reusable lower portion configured to be removably attached to the disposable bag. The reusable lower portion may further include a paddle to aid in dispensing ingredients from the disposable bag. The automated food making apparatus may further include a dispensing apparatus that is configured to dispense ingredients from the disposable bag.

An automated food making apparatus having a carousel and at least one canister. The at least one canister may include a disposable bag having ingredients therein, with the disposable bag being disposed at an upper portion of the canister. The at least one canister may further include a reusable lower portion configured to be removably attached to the disposable bag. The reusable lower portion may further include a paddle to aid in dispensing ingredients from the disposable bag. The automated food making apparatus may further include a dispensing apparatus that is configured to dispense ingredients from the disposable bag.

Disclosed is a portable heating/cooling device comprising one or more heating elements for transferring heat to an object, one or more cooling elements for cooling an object; wherein said heating or cooling elements are adapted for selectively providing either heating or cooling based on temperature maintenance requirements, an integrated control unit for regulating the temperature, one or more temperature sensors that provide real-time feedback to the control unit, and a power source for supplying energy to the heating/cooling elements.

An electric kettle may include a body configured to form a space in which liquid, such as water may be contained, a handle that protrudes from an outer surface of the body, a heating module provided inside of the body to heat liquid inside of the body, an operation portion provided in the handle to operate so as to control an operation of the heating module, and a main printed circuit board (PCB) provided inside of the handle to control the operation of the heating module according to an operation of the operation portion. The body may have a double wall structure including two walls spaced apart from each other, and an electric wire that connects the main PCB and the heating module may be guided from the handle to the heating module through a space between the two walls.

An electric kettle may include a body made of a metal material and configured to form a space in which fluid, such as water is contained, a heating module provided in the body to heat the space, a handle mounted to protrude from an outer surface of the body, a handle cover made of a metal material and configured to form a protruding upper surface of the handle, and a handle printed circuit board (PCB) provided inside of the handle and including a touch sensor in close contact with a rear surface of the handle cover to sense a touch operation of the handle cover. An operation of the heating module may be controlled by the handle PCB.