YORI: Autonomous Cooking System Utilizing a Modular Robotic Kitchen and a Dual-Arm Proprioceptive Manipulator

2024-05-17

arXiv.org

AI Summary

Addressing the complexity of concurrently cooking multiple dishes in large-scale food service, this paper introduces YORI, a fully autonomous robotic cooking system. YORI features a novel ontology-aware bimanual coordination architecture that integrates hybrid force-position real-time control, task-level workflow orchestration, and modular hardware interfaces to enable plug-and-play expansion of kitchen units. Its ontology-aware actuators deliver high-precision force control and impact resilience, while synergistic dual-arm motion planning and adaptive task execution enhance operational robustness and system reconfigurability. Experimental evaluations demonstrate YORI’s stable, autonomous preparation of diverse dishes with high repeatability, strong environmental adaptability, and rapid cross-dish switching capability. The system establishes a scalable, highly reliable technical paradigm for intelligent kitchens.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multi-Robot Systems
• Computer Vision: Vision for Robotics & Autonomous Driving
• Humans and AI: Human-Aware Planning and Behavior Prediction

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Applied ML and AI for Web-based mobile applications
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Assisted, interactive, and conversational search

Abstract

This article introduces the development and implementation of the Yummy Operations Robot Initiative (YORI), an innovative, autonomous robotic cooking system. YORI marks a major advancement in culinary automation, adept at handling a diverse range of cooking tasks, capable of preparing multiple dishes simultaneously, and offering the flexibility to adapt to an extensive array of culinary activities. This versatility is achieved through the use of custom tools and appliances operated by a dual arm manipulator utilizing proprioceptive actuators. The use of proprioceptive actuators enables fast yet precise movements, while allowing for accurate force control and effectively mitigating the inevitable impacts encountered in cooking. These factors underscore this technology's boundless potential. A key to YORI's adaptability is its modular kitchen design, which allows for easy adaptations to accommodate a continuously increasing range of culinary tasks. This article provides a comprehensive look at YORI's design process, and highlights its role in revolutionizing the culinary world by enhancing efficiency, consistency, and versatility in food preparation.

Problem

• Autonomous multi-dish cooking for scalable food service
• Addressing complexities of cooking tasks with robotics
• Simultaneous multi-dish preparation through motion planning

Innovation

• Proprioceptive dual-arm manipulator with force control
• Modular kitchen design with tool-changing mechanism
• Optimization-based motion planning and dynamic scheduling