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CMU Students Create 'Revolutionary' Fast Food Robot

POSTED: 4:02 pm EST November 20, 2007
UPDATED: 5:50 pm EST November 20, 2007

Many of you are busy preparing your Thanksgiving feast, so you might be tempted to hit the drive-through and grab something quick, but sometimes, fast food is anything but fast.

Two students from Carnegie Mellon University are trying to revolutionize the fast food process.

"The whole issue has been how much product should be cooked in advance of assembly," said Joe Porfeli, the CEO of Hyperactive Technologies.

Porfeli and Hyperactive Technologies wanted to know how to take the guess work out of figuring out fast food.

"So to have something come in that's automated that the crew doesn't have to think about is a whole new paradigm," said Porfeli.

The paradigm was created by a couple of best and brightest from CMU.

"We had automated so many different things: military projects, NASA, a lot of high-end projects, and we thought if we could do all that, why couldn't we automate a restaurant," said Dr. Craig Coulter of HT.

Using the same technology used for CMU's self-driving car, the pair created "Hyperactive Bob."

Hyperactive Bob literally turns a restaurant into a robot. Using real-time data and historical info, tells kitchen staffs not only how much to cook but when to cook it.

"So you eliminate run outs," said Coulter. "You don't overproduce or let it sit there and get cold and old. You make just the right amount of food at just the right time."

Right now, the system is in use at businesses outside western Pennsylvania.

HT expects to have the robot installed in western Pennsylvania restaurants in the next year.


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