How would you like to have your dinner prepared by a Michelin-starred chef every night of your life?
Imagine coming home from an exhausting day at work, changing out of your work clothes, then going into the kitchen to tuck into a freshly-prepared bowl of crab bisque, prepared by your robotic kitchen.
This could one day be a reality thanks to the creation of the world's first Automated Kitchen.
The chef mimicked in the video demonstration below is Tim Anderson, who won MasterChef in 2011. Using motion capture technology, his movements were tracked and recorded. The two robotic arms are then able to faithfully replicate his movements, down to the control of temperature on the hob, and even signing off their work with an 'OK' gesture.
"To be honest, I didn't think this was possible," said Tim, who chose crab bisque because he says it's a "real challenge for a human chef to make well, never mind a machine."
He described the Automated Kitchen as "very exciting" and the "beginning of something really significant", saying that having seen and tasted the results for himself, he was "stunned".
Plenty of recipes to hand(s)
The machine isn't limited making just this recipe though. Its makers will offer a library of 2,000 recipes upon launch, and more could eventually be downloaded by users in the same way you currently download a song from iTunes.
And its co-creator believes this would offer both celebrity chefs and amateur cooks the chance to share their recipes.
The robotic limbs were developed by the Shadow Robot Company (the fully articulated hands are also used in the nuclear industry and by NASA), while the kitchen environment and application of the technology was devised by Moley Robotics.
But, surprise surprise, it isn't cheap...
The product launches in 2017 and is a snip at just $14,000 (around £10,000). OK, so perhaps it's a luxury that will be out of budget for most of us for the foreseeable future.
If demand grows though, we could see this type of technology become incorporated into the kitchen at varying levels of intrusiveness, from simply assisting with the cooking to completing a meal from scratch by itself.
Moley Robotics was founded by Mark Oleynik, who says that the Automated Kitchen is "not just a labour saving device – it is a platform for our creativity. It can even teach us how to become better cooks!"
This last point is interesting. If a home cook was to copy the robot, with the right recipe they would essentially be copying the actions of a Michelin-starred chef.
Through the robot, you could learn to cook from the likes of Gordon Ramsay, but without the shouting, although do bear in mind that the robot is fully capable of replicating a wide range of hand gestures.
Is it laziness or a luxury? Would you trust a robot to get your food right? Would you be worried it's a better cook than you? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments below.
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