Droids are cooking

Burger bars may never be the same again—not after Flipper, the world’s
first robotic short-order chef, wowed restaurateurs with its burger and pancake
cooking skills at last week’s National Restaurant Association convention in
Chicago. Developed by Gene Tippman, president of AccuTemp of Fort Wayne,
Indiana, which makes griddles for restaurants, Flipper is a former
production-line robot that now wields a fish slice in its garish yellow gripper
arm. Trained to cook eggs, burgers, pancakes, fries and even pizzas—at up
to 500 burgers per hour—the droid could help the chronic labour shortage
in the US restaurant industry, says…