These events will be held from 4pm to 10pm at the Al Khor Waterfront
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A robot that cooks? In this modular kitchen, you can get a fully cooked meal with a click, without any human intervention. The kitchen is equipped with a robotic arm, two instant pots and fully stocked pantry.
The innovation is up on display at the Big 5 Global conference – an event for the construction industry – that began at the Dubai World Trade Centre on Tuesday.
“The robotic arm can wash rice, chop vegetables, sauté and cook one-pot dishes,” explained Captain Ehsan Khalid, Founder and Director of Chilly Robotics. “The machine can also alert you when your pantry essentials are running low and if you give it permission, it can also order groceries online.”
The kitchen is developed by Indian company Chilly Robotics Kitchen in association with US-based Autochef Robotics Inc.
At a demonstration at the company’s stand, the makers showed how Autochef can cook a rice pilaf. The machine sautéed onions, mixed in freshly chopped vegetables, washed the rice, added stock and cooked the dish.
Watch the supplied video below:
Controlled remotely with an app, users can choose to program the kitchen to cook a meal at a certain time. The innovation is currently priced at $40,000 (approx Dh147,000).
Fitting into a 5ft by 7ft space, the white-black-golden kitchen is designed to function on its own. The central part has a robotic arm, a built-in exhaust system, two instant pots and designated containers. Just under the counter are six bowls which can be filled with fresh ingredients for the day’s cooking like vegetables and protein, underneath which are oils and sauces.
“When people want to buy the kitchen, we can design it in such a way that the fresh section is put inside a chiller,” said Captain Khalid. “That way, people can fill it in the morning when they leave their house to go to the office and program the kitchen to cook a hot dinner when they return back.”
On the left is a pantry section with two tiers of containers. The top one consists of all the dry ingredients and pulses while the bottom one is filled with spices. “It is important that users fill the designated jars with what they have assigned it for,” he said. “For example, they can set Spice 1 as salt. If they accidentally fill it with sugar, the robotic arm currently does not have the capability to differentiate it. That is something we are working to build in.”
To the right of the kitchen is an outlet for water which the arm uses to wash ingredients and add water to dishes. In the corner, there is a slot for a spatula which is used to sauté items. “The kitchen is completely customisable and is designed to fit into an existing kitchen,” he said. “We have an inbuilt water supply and exhaust system. However, if people want to connect it to their home’s water supply, that is also possible.”
A pilot by profession, Captain Khalid took an interest in cooking during the Covid pandemic. However, he noticed how cooking was a repetitive action which, according to him, took up an unnecessarily huge amount of time. “I thought, if we can automate every other part of our life, why not automate our meals,” he said. “So I came up with this idea for a kitchen that can customise and personalise meals for every member of the family according to their dietary requirements.”
It took him him almost five years of testing and trialling to come up with the current design. He said that the first time he tested the Autochef, he had invited his son-in-law home. “The first dish I cooked was pasta,” he recalled. “My wife made a pot of chicken pasta just in case the one that Autochef cooked wasn’t good. However, that day my pasta was licked clean, and hers had leftovers. That's when I knew I had nailed it.”
Right now in its testing phase, Captain Khalid said he has already received several orders for the kitchen. “I am looking at partnering with property developers in the UAE to have this kitchen built into their premium properties,” he said. “This is the future of cooking, so in a place like Dubai, I am expecting people to be keenly interested.”
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