Creator, Inc.

Momentum Machines Company

Cucina, Inc.

Alexandros Vardakostas

Steven Frehn

John Lawrence McDonald

Michael Balsamo

James Brinkman

Matthew Williams

Noe Esparza

Thomas C Hanson

Taylor Nicholson

Oshin Nazarian

Aaron Mathew Engel-Hall

Jeff C Jensen

Andrew Michael Stulc

Abigail Elizabeth Soong

David Bordow

Harry Shapiro Hawk

Cameron Bennett

Joanna Cohen

James Riley

A system includes a food dispenser, a cooking surface, and an arm assembly. The arm assembly is configured to receive a food product from the food dispenser and transport the food product to the cooking surface. The arm assembly includes an arm portion, an actuator, a cylinder, and a piston. The actuator drives rotation of the arm portion about a first rotational axis. The cylinder is attached to the arm portion and is rotatable relative to the arm portion about a second rotational axis. The piston is axially movable within the cylinder. The piston includes multiple stages. At least one of the stages is movable axially relative to another of the stages between a first position and a second position.

System and method for grinding a food product

An automated food preparation system includes a conveyance system configured to move a foodstuff into a sauce position. The automated food preparation system includes multiple sauce reservoirs each having a pump and each configured to contain a respective one of multiple sauces. The automated food preparation system includes multiple tubes, each in fluid communication with the pump of a respective one of the sauce reservoirs. The automated food preparation system includes a scanning head including multiple openings each coupled with a respective one of the tubes. The automated food preparation system includes a motor drivingly coupled to the scanning head and operable to move the scanning head relative to the foodstuff in the sauce position to position a selected one or more of the openings over a selected one or more regions of the foodstuff.

Systems and methods for precisely dispensing food items

An automated food preparation system includes a sauce-dispensing system with sauce reservoirs, a scanning head, and tubes. Each of the sauce reservoirs is configured to contain a respective sauce. The scanning head includes openings each coupled with a respective sauce reservoir via a respective tube. A conveyance system transports a foodstuff between first and sauce positions. The scanning head is movable to dispense a selected sauce onto one or more regions of the foodstuff. A motor assembly is mounted to a mounting structure. The motor assembly is drivingly coupled to the scanning head and rotates the scanning head relative to the mounting structure. The scanning head includes a plate and a cylindrical shroud fixed relative to the plate. The openings extend through the plate. The plate is disposed within a cavity defined by the cylindrical shroud. The motor assembly rotates the plate and the cylindrical shroud about a longitudinal axis.

System and method for dispensing sauces on foodstuffs

A system for cooking a food product may include a base, a hub, a plurality of cooking plates, a plurality of wipers, a spatula assembly, a backstop, an infrared (IR) sensor, and a proximity sensor. The hub may rotate relative to the base. The cooking plates are rotatable with the hub among a plurality of cooking stations. The wipers extend outward from a periphery of the hub. The backstop may be fixed relative to the base and may include one or more additional wipers contacting one or more of the cooking plates. The spatula assembly may cooperate with the backstop to pick up the food product from the one of the cooking stations. The IR sensor may measure a temperature of the food product on one of the cooking plates. The proximity sensor may detect a position of the food product on one of the cooking plates.

System and method for cooking a food product

Systems and method for grinding a food product

A system for dispensing toppings onto a topping vehicle may include a hopper platform, hoppers, a retaining plate, a blade, and a hopper-advancing pin. The hoppers each include a hopper bracket slidably engaging the hopper platform. The blade is mounted on the retaining plate and may reciprocate relative to the retaining plate. The hopper-advancing pin is movable relative to the hoppers between deployed and stowed positions. The hopper-advancing pin may engage one of the hopper brackets in the deployed position such that movement of the retaining plate between retracted and extended positions causes movement of the hopper bracket and a respective hopper along a length of the hopper platform. The hopper-advancing pin may be disengaged from the hopper brackets in the deployed stowed position to allow movement of the retaining plate between the retracted and extended positions without causing movement of the hopper brackets.

System and method for dispensing toppings

In response to a first condition in a first subsystem of a robot, a controller halts operation of the first subsystem; transmits a set command specifying a first notification to an interface system; obtains status information from the interface system; and, in response to the status information indicating that the first notification has a cleared status, resumes operation of the first subsystem. The interface system maintains a set of active notifications and tracks a set of devices configured to receive notifications. Each of the devices is associated with a respective operator. In response to receiving the set command, the interface system: adds the first notification to the set of active notifications; determines a subset of devices to receive the first notification; wirelessly transmits the first notification to the subset; and, in response to receiving a clear message specifying the first notification, sets the first notification to the cleared status.

Control system architecture and distributed human-machine interface for robot control

A method for handling foodstuffs according to temperature exposure within an automated foodstuff assembly apparatus includes receiving, at a topping module, a hopper carrying topping samples. The topping samples are all the same type of topping. The method includes monitoring temperatures corresponding to the topping samples. Monitoring includes making first temperature measurements corresponding to one of the topping samples and making second temperature measurements corresponding to another one of the topping samples. The method includes maintaining a set of timers associated with the first temperature measurements and the second temperature measurements. The method includes, in response to at least one timer in the set of timers expiring, selectively preventing dispensation of a topping sample of the topping samples.

Method for temperature-based control of foodstuff assembly apparatus

An automated food preparation system includes a seasoning-dispensing system, a sauce-dispensing system, and a conveyance system. The seasoning-dispensing system includes a plurality of vessels, a dispersion nozzle, and a conduit coupled to the dispersion nozzle. Each vessel contains one of a plurality of seasonings. The vessels are in selective communication with the conduit. The sauce-dispensing system includes a plurality of sauce reservoirs, a scanning head, and a plurality of tubes. Each sauce reservoirs contains one of a plurality of sauces. The scanning head includes openings each coupled with one of the sauce reservoirs via one of the tubes. The conveyance system transports a foodstuff between a seasoning position in which the foodstuff is disposed below the dispersion nozzle and a sauce position in which the foodstuff is disposed below the openings. The scanning head is movable to dispense one or more sauces onto the foodstuff.

System and method for dispensing spices on foodstuffs

One variation of a method for dispensing toppings onto topping vehicles includes: indexing a first topping vehicle to a first position adjacent a first topping module, the first topping module including a first hopper containing a first topping of a first topping type; indexing a second topping vehicle to a second position adjacent a second topping module including a second hopper containing a second topping of a second topping type; retracting a first blade of the first topping module; advancing the first blade through the first topping; retracting a first retaining plate to dispense a topping slice from the first topping onto the first topping vehicle according to a first topping order for the first topping vehicle specifying the first topping type, the first retaining plate offset from the first blade opposite the first hopper; advancing the first retaining plate; and indexing the first topping vehicle to the second position.

System for dispensing toppings

One variation of a method for fulfilling custom food orders includes: in response to request for a custom food order from a patron through an ordering portal executing on a computing device, retrieving a location of the computing device; identifying a set of food assembly apparatuses within a threshold distance of the location of the computing device; aggregating a list of ingredients currently loaded into the set of food assembly apparatuses; in response to selection of a particular ingredient in the list of ingredients for the custom food order, removing ingredients, from the list of ingredients, unique to a food assembly apparatus not currently loaded with the particular ingredient; selecting a particular food assembly apparatus, from the set, currently loaded with a set of ingredients specified in the custom food order; and inserting the custom food order into a food order queue assigned to the particular food assembly apparatus.

Method for queuing orders at a food assembly apparatus

One variation of a system for cooking food includes: a griddle module including a lower plate configured to receive a food product and an upper plate arranged over the lower plate and configured to contact the food product; a set of induction stations, each induction station including a lower coil configured to inductively couple to the lower plate when the griddle module is arranged in the induction station and an upper coil configured to inductively couple to the upper plate when the griddle module is arranged in the induction station; a hub configured to support the lower plate and the upper plate between the upper and lower coils of the induction stations and to sequentially position the griddle module through the set of induction stations; and a controller configured to drive the upper and lower coils to heat the food product between the lower plate and the upper plate.

System and method for cooking a meat patty

One variation of a system for forming a meat patty includes: a cylinder operable in a upright position and an inverted position; a piston running within the cylinder and defining a set of gas ports; a grinder configured to grind meat and to dispense a quantity of ground meat into the cylinder, in the upright position, during a grind cycle; an actuator system configured to transition the cylinder from the upright position to the inverted position during a dispense cycle to dispense the quantity of ground meat from the cylinder; and a gas supply configured to supply gas to the cylinder behind the piston at a first pressure during the grind cycle to limit ingress of ground meat into the gas ports and at a second pressure greater than the first pressure during the dispense cycle to dislodge the quantity of ground meat from the piston.

System and method for forming a food patty

A system includes a conveyor that transports a carriage carrying a foodstuff along a path. A bag dispenser contains multiple bags and moves a first bag into the path. A paddle includes a hinge at a trailing edge of the paddle. The paddle includes an actuator that moves a leading edge of the paddle relative to the trailing edge between retracted and extended positions. The leading edge of the paddle moves into a mouth of the first bag as the leading edge is moved from the retracted to the extended position. While the paddle is in the extended position, movement of the carriage and the foodstuff underneath the paddle rotates the leading edge of the paddle about the hinge to open the mouth of the first bag such that continued movement of the carriage and the foodstuff moves the foodstuff through the mouth and into the first bag.

Bagging system for packaging a foodstuff

One variation of a system for buttering and toasting bread buns includes: a butter stage including: a vessel containing liquefied dairy fat and defining a permeable surface, a pressure supply fluidly coupled to the vessel, and a first paddle assembly configured to catch a bun crown dispensed into the butter stage, to compress a sliced face of the bun crown directly against the permeable surface, and to release the bun crown from the butter stage; and a toast stage including a toasting surface arranged vertically below the permeable surface, a heating element arranged behind the toasting surface, and a second paddle assembly arranged vertically below the first paddle assembly and configured to catch the bun crown released from the first paddle assembly, to compress the sliced face of the bun crown directly against the toasting surface, and to release the bun crown from the toasting surface.

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Alexandros Vardakostas