The present disclosure relates to a food processor for preparing a food, with a food preparation space with one or more devices for preparing the food in the food preparation space. The food processor also having at least one interface for connecting the food processor to another household appliance and a user interface unit for providing user interfaces. The food processor having a control unit for providing control programs and a communication unit for providing communication channels.

The present disclosure relates to technology that controls a robot based on brain-computer interface, and a robot control method acquires a first biosignal indicating an intention to start the operation of the robot from a user to operate the robot, provides the user with visual stimulation of differently set signal cycles corresponding to a plurality of objects for which the robot executes motions, acquires a second biosignal evoked by the visual stimulation from the user to identify an object selected by the user, and acquires a third biosignal corresponding to a motion for the identified object from the user to induce the robot to execute the corresponding motion.

Disclosed is a cooking system having a matrix configured grilling apparatus that includes a plurality of grill modules forming a grid of grills, each grill in the plurality of grill modules being thermally isolated, having an egress for inserting and removing foodstuff, and being individually and digitally controllable, and a movable end effector that is digitally controllable and that inserts and removes foodstuff from each grill of the plurality of grill modules.

The present invention provides a method for tracking food data transactions in a network data processing system comprising the steps of reading a network storage devices a packaged food production data hash tree, receiving a food data transaction from a hardware data processor in a food packaging machine, appending the food data transaction to the packaged food production data hash tree, and causing decentralised storage of identical instances of the appended packaged food production data hash tree in the plurality of network storage devices. The present invention further provides a network data processing system and a computer program for carrying out the method.

An article transfer device includes: a robot hand transferring an article gripped by a gripping unit; and a control unit controlling operation of the robot hand so as to insert the gripping unit into an article region where the article is disposed, grip the article, and transfer the gripped article to a transfer destination. The control unit controls the operation of the robot hand such that the gripping unit is closed and a predetermined amount of the article is gripped after opening-closing operation for opening the gripping unit after temporarily closing the gripping unit is executed at least once.

A mobile cooking-and-ingredient-supply system includes a vehicle, a data-storage device, a cooking module, an ingredient-supply rack, first-ingredient-supply modules, an ingredient-replenishing station and a computing device. The data-storage device stores a food-preparation plan associated with a food preparation location, a preparation time, and an ingredient for preparing a food product. The cooking module is configured to prepare the food product based on the food-preparation plan. The first-ingredient-supply modules are carried by the ingredient-supply rack. The ingredient-replenishing station carries second-ingredient-supply modules to meet with the vehicle and replenish one of the first-ingredient-supply modules. The computing device is configured with computer-executable instructions based on the food-preparation plan, automatically causes the ingredient-replenishing station to prepare one of the second ingredient-supply modules based on the food-preparation plan, and automatically selects meeting time and meeting location based on the food-preparation plan, for the vehicle to meet with the ingredient-replenishing station.

Provided is a robotic cooking device including: a chassis; a set of wheels; a processor; an actuator; one or more sensors; one or more motors; and one or more cooking devices. An application of a communication device wirelessly connected to the robotic cooking device is used for one or more of: choosing settings of the robotic cooking device, choosing a location of the robotic cooking device, adjusting or generating a map of the environment, adjusting or generating a navigation path of the robotic cooking device, adjusting or generating boundaries of the robotic cooking device, and monitoring a food item within the one or more cooking devices.

Provided is a method for operating an assembly for processing liquid food products, where the operation of the assembly comprises automatically executable steps and steps to be executed manually for various elements of the assembly, where machine readable pieces of information are applied to at least one of the various elements the machine-readable pieces of information identifying the respective element, where the steps to be executed manually are in a processing unit each associated with an execution status which is set to executed under the condition that the machine-readable pieces of information are read out at at least one predetermined element by way of a mobile terminal, and where a control device controls the automatically executable steps taking into account the execution status.

A method and system are provided for automatically portioning workpieces, such as food products, by simulating portioning the workpieces in accordance with the one or more desired shapes of the final piece(s) as a directly controlled physical characteristic (parameter/specification) as well as one or more resulting indirectly controlled physical characteristics (parameters/specifications). The desired shape(s) of the final piece(s) are defined by a plurality of manipulatable reference coordinates. A workpiece is scanned to obtain scanning information, then portioning of the workpiece is simulated in accordance with the desired shape(s) of the final piece(s) defined by the directly controlled reference coordinates, thereby to determine the one or more indirectly controlled physical characteristics of the one or more final pieces to be portioned from the workpiece. The simulated portioning of the workpiece is performed for multiple combinations of directly controlled shapes as defined by the modified or edited reference coordinates and indirectly controlled physical characteristics until an acceptable set of a directly controlled shape and resulting one or more indirectly controlled physical characteristics is determined.

Systems, methods, and articles for gathering and utilizing individual and aggregate data from connected cooking devices, online recipe databases and/or mobile applications. Cooking instructions may be stored as processor-readable cooking programs that use mutable real time status updates as input. Such programs may be chosen via a user computing device and may be further parameterized by numeric, textual or camera-based inputs. Various methods may be used to determine what foods a user is preparing, and what equipment and techniques are used. This data may be supplemented with feedback to verify what was cooked, how the result compared to visual representation in advance of cooking, and satisfaction level. The data may be used to reproduce past cooking results, adjust future recipes, suggest recipes or products, or connecting users to online communities of users. Cooking data may be used to offer just-in-time problem solving, products, or connection to other users.