With labor shortage issues continuing to affect the retail and restaurant industries, national restaurant brands are now rolling out high-tech solutions for their understaffed situations. Working with technology developed from Miso Robotics, the automation company based in Pasadena, Calif., White Castle, Chipotle and Buffalo Wild Wings are all in different stages of rolling out their own versions of the AI-powered mechanical robotic arm.
In March, Chipotle began launching trial runs at its test kitchen site in Irvine, Calif., with “Chippy,” the mechanical arm robot that will be able to deep fry and season tortilla chips. Chipotle is hoping to put the robot to use in at least one of its Southern California units by the end of the year. In addition, White Castle—which has been testing out the “Flippy” and the upgraded “Flippy 2” technology in a limited number of restaurants for the past two years, in which a mechanical robot arm can flip burgers and even make french fries—announced in February that it will expand the Flippy 2 robots into 100 of its units throughout the country. Not to be outdone, Buffalo Wild Wings expects to utilize its mechanical arm robot this year, dubbed “Wingy,” which will be able to fry chicken wings, lift them out, and place them in a holding area. Wingy will be tested at the Inspire Brands’ Alliance Kitchen ghost kitchen in Atlanta, before being installed into a Buffalo Wild Wings brick-and-mortar restaurant by late 2022.
