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US-20260124766-A1 - FLEXIBLE AUTOMATIC FOOD PROCESSING AND CLIENT ORDERS EXECUTION MACHINE

US20260124766A1US 20260124766 A1US20260124766 A1US 20260124766A1US-20260124766-A1

Abstract

The present technology is to be used in used in pizzerias and other food restaurants to fully substitute manual labor in food processing. The present technology utilizes a modular principle for flexibility. It allows tuning the machine to (1) different dishes like pizza, chicken wings or hamburgers (2) different sizes and shapes of the room and (3) different orders capacity. The machine utilizes autonomous driving robots with autopilot for food logistics between ingredient stations and for the refilling of the stations with ingredients. Autonomous autopilot robot allows to precisely position the food to cook, e.g. pizza, with the ingredient station for precisely topping or other food processing. Precise interposition allows deep food customization by a client with the possibility of making drawings on food using ingredients. The matrix modular structure of the machine allows parallel orders execution. It is extremely beneficial in peak hours.

Inventors

  • Denis Rodionov
  • Roman Sharapov

Assignees

  • X ROBOTICS, INC.

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20251229

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . (canceled)
  2. 2 . An automated pizza system, comprising: a food processing machine with autonomous robots that move on a bed independently and simultaneously and transfer processing food between ingredients stations; a refilling system for a food processing machine that includes autonomous robots; said autonomous robots move on said bed independently and simultaneously and transfer ingredients from a storage place or cooler, to ingredient stations and dispensers; said food processing machine further includes ingredients toppings process executed by rotational and linear movements of the autonomous robot those are related and synchronized to the feed of ingredients of the dispenser; wherein said food processing machine further includes a modular matrix frame with a bidirectional array of the interchangeable dispensers that allows parallel orders processing; said food processing machine which allows food customization by a client with text and draws, wherein said text and draws are transformed on top of the food using sauces or other ingredients by relative movements of autonomous robots and intelligent ingredients dispensers. It is executed on the top of the food using sauces or other ingredients by relative movements of autonomous robots and ingredients dispenser. food ingredients dispenser (as a part of the machine) that can spread low doses of ingredients around the pizza crust or dish. It is executed by rotation of a food ingredients container with a nozzle according to the information from ingredients passing sensors; sausage slicer (as a part of the machine) that can slice sausages and lay sausage slices on the pizza crust or dish precisely. It uses a disk blade and a sausage revolver that rotate simultaneously. Rotation of the sausage revolver allows feeding of the sausages on the disk blade.
  3. 3 . An automated pizza process for making a pizza using an automated pizza system, the automated pizza process comprising the steps of: moving autonomous robots on a platform both independently and simultaneously; transferring the processing of food between a plurality of ingredients stations; refilling a food processing machine that includes use of autonomous robots; moving said autonomous robots on said platform both independently and simultaneously to transfer ingredients from a storage place or cooler, to intelligent ingredient stations and intelligent dispensers; initiating, based on executed programmatic processes, rotational and linear movements of the indicated autonomous robot that is related and synchronized to the feed of the ingredients of the dispenser. using as modular matrix frame with a frame bidirectional array of the interchangeable dispensers that allows parallel orders processing; and enabling food processing and food customization according to a client order.
  4. 4 . A food preparing system comprising: one or more food robots autonomously moveable on a table, the food robots including a rotatable header for receiving a food item; an ingredient dispensing frame positioned above the table and including one or more modular ingredient dispensers configured to dispense an ingredient on to the food item supported by the header of at least one of the food robots positioned therebelow; one or more ingredient robots autonomously moveable on an ingredient bed, the ingredient robots being configured to receive the ingredient, transport the ingredient to at least one of the ingredient dispensers, and dispense the ingredient in the ingredient dispensers, the ingredient bed being separate from the table; a food cooking station configured to receive the header and the food item thereon, and cook the food item; a post-cooking station configured to receive the header and the cooked food item thereon from the food cooking station, and remove the cooked food item from the header; and a header station configured to receive the header from the post-cooking station and provide the header to at least one of the food robots.
  5. 5 . The food preparing system according to claim 4 further comprising an ingredient storage configured to receive ingredient containers and provide at least one of the ingredient containers to at least one of the ingredient robots.
  6. 6 . The food preparing system according to claim 5 , wherein the ingredient storage is a plurality of modular freezers each featuring a container aperture and a container feeding mechanism configured to advance the ingredient containers toward the container aperture.
  7. 7 . The food preparing system according to claim 6 , wherein the ingredient robots including an ingredient container hopper configured to receive at least one of the ingredient containers from the container aperture.
  8. 8 . The food preparing system according to claim 4 , wherein the food robots each include a universal clamp configured to couple with a portion of the header, and a rotating drive device configured to rotate the universal clamp and the header coupled thereto.
  9. 9 . The food preparing system according to claim 8 , wherein the food robots are each configured to travel in a linear or lateral direction along the table, and simultaneously rotate the header while under one of the ingredient dispensers to distribute the ingredient being dispensed on the food item.
  10. 10 . The food preparing system according to claim 4 further comprising a robot elevator configured to receive the food robots and elevate the food robots to an entrance of the food cooking station.
  11. 11 . The food preparing system according to claim 4 , wherein the table includes unique codes thereon readable by a camera on the food robots for determining position coordinates on the table.
  12. 12 . The food preparing system according to claim 4 further comprising a computer system having at least one processing unit configured to receive a food order, provide instructions to the food robots, provide instructions to the ingredient robots, and provide instructions to the ingredient dispensers.
  13. 13 . The food preparing system according to claim 4 , wherein the header station is configured to receive the header from the post-cooking station in a stacked configuration with multiple empty headers, and is configured to provide at least one empty header to the food robots when positioned therebelow.
  14. 14 . The food preparing system according to claim 13 , wherein the post-cooking station includes a cooked food item moving mechanism, and a header conveyor, the cooked food item moving mechanism is configured to transfer the cooked food item off the header, the header conveyor is configured to move the header to a top section of the header station.
  15. 15 . The food preparing system according to claim 4 further comprising a food station including a food transfer system configured to capture a food item and transfer it to a food item support.
  16. 16 . The food preparing system according to claim 15 , wherein the food station further includes a food item forming mechanism configured to form the food item located on the food item support from a first shape to a second shape different to that of the first shape.
  17. 17 . The food preparing system according to claim 16 , wherein the food item support is configured to pivot to transfer the food item to the header of the food robots adjacently positioned thereto.
  18. 18 . The food preparing system according to claim 16 , wherein the food item forming mechanism includes a pair of opposing conical rollers configured to rotate and press against the food item.
  19. 19 . The food preparing system according to claim 4 , wherein one of the modular ingredient dispensers includes a container configured to receive the ingredient from one of the ingredient robots, a pivoting mechanism configured to pivot the container so that the ingredient received therein is transferred to a funnel, and a vibration device configured to vibrate the container.
  20. 20 . The food preparing system according to claim 4 , wherein one of the modular ingredient dispensers includes a container configured to receive the ingredient from one of the ingredient robots, a rotating disk blade configured to slice the ingredient received in the container, and a nozzle configured to receive the sliced ingredient from the disk blade.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation of U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 17/035,559, filed on Sep. 28, 2020, which claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) based upon co-pending U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/907,483 filed on Sep. 27, 2019 and U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 63/065,447 filed on Aug. 13, 2020. The entire disclosure of these prior applications is incorporated herein by reference. This application is a continuation of U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 17/035,559, filed on Sep. 28, 2020, which is a continuation-in-part under 35 U.S.C. § 120 based upon co-pending International Application No. PCT/US20/52982 filed on Sep. 27, 2020, which claimed priority to U.S. provisional application 62/907,483 filed on Sep. 27, 2019 and U.S. provisional patent application 63/065,447 filed on Aug. 13, 2020. The entire disclosure of these prior applications is incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND Technical Field Generally, the present technology relates to the field of automatic food processing. Specifically, the present technology relates to the machine that can cook food and execute client orders in a flexible and parallel mode, with minimal or virtually no human assistance. The present technology relates to a flexible automatic food processing and client orders execution machine for use in connection with preparing and cooking food items per client orders utilizing flexible automatic food processing. Background Description Due to permanently increasing wages there is pressure on restaurants concerning economical efficiency. The possible salvation is the automatization of the restaurants. Nowadays there is no fully automatic restaurant in the world. Most of the restaurants use scattered tools and machines, with manual control and logistics between those. Many attempts were executed to automatization of the restaurants. Most of it uses universal robotics in the process. U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,924A uses a robot arm to move pizza from the topping line to the oven. Topping is executed manually. U.S. Pat. No. 9,974,314B2 also uses a robot arm to move the pizza between stations. Patent WO 2017/134156 Al uses 2 robot arms for pizza sauce spreading and moving the pizza from dough press to ingredients dispenser and then to carousel oven. In all the examples the robot arm copies of the human behavior and has constraints related to it. The throughput capacity of one arm is equal to one employee. Several patents use CNC-like machines with linear motion modules (e.g., US20160067866A1). It is a precise mechanism with excess accuracy and complex installation and calibration process. It is not flexible, allows only consistent work with limited speed and capacity. There is a group of patents with the invention of the pizza vending machine (U.S. Pat. No. 8,710,408B2, WO2017101015A1). However, the design of all these machines doesn't allow to cook restaurant quality pizza because of limited ingredients, frozen dough and a number of other quality constraints related to the vending format. A need exists for a new and novel flexible automatic food processing and client orders execution machine that can be used for preparing and cooking food items per client orders utilizing flexible automatic food processing. In this regard, the present technology substantially fulfills this need. In this respect, the flexible automatic food processing and client orders execution machine according to the present technology substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of preparing and cooking food items per client orders utilizing flexible automatic food processing. Summary According to some aspects, an automated pizza system, may comprise: a food processing machine with autonomous robots that move on a bed independently and simultaneously and transfer processing food between ingredients stations; a refilling system for a food processing machine that includes autonomous robots; said autonomous robots move on said bed independently and simultaneously and transfer ingredients from a storage place or cooler, to ingredient stations and dispensers; said food processing machine further includes ingredients toppings process executed by rotational and linear movements of the autonomous robot those are related and synchronized to the feed of ingredients of the dispenser; wherein said food processing machine further includes modular matrix frame with a bidirectional array of the interchangeable dispensers that allows parallel orders processing; and said food processing machine which allows food customization by a client with text and draws, wherein said text and draws are transformed on top of the food using sauces or other ingredients by relative movements of autonomous robots and intelligent ingredients dispensers. It is executed on the top of t