Yeah it's obviously not the most efficient way to sell ice cream. It's like having a robot make a coffee like a human would VS. a pod based vending machine. One is a lot more interesting to watch as a tech demo but the other is far more efficient for consumers and sales.
@@GadgetAddict Yeah. Seems like a practical ice cream vending machine would work better off the k8nd of mechanisms used for soft serve. Dispensing nozzles for each flavour, and a mechanism to move the container below each nozzle in turn. Would have a lot of engineering teething problems, especially in conjunction with regular 'hard' icecream, but assuming you could solve them, would likely be toms faster than this thing.
@@KuraIthys There are some gas stations that do this with soft serve, except that they have different tubes for favors instead of nozzles. Doesn't work too well.
Thermal Ions yeah this was what I was thinking. Going to make that kid negative and cynical at way too young an age. Wonder and excitement while learning how things like this have a long way to go would be a cool lesson. But I have no kids so easy for my to say haha
Dave quickly removes an access panel and manages to overclock the control module. Much screaming as ice cream flies everywhere across the room! "Bloody One Hung Lo brand robots!"
@@jagdtigger It's not cleaning the scoop. It warms it in water so the blob of ice cream releases from the scoop. A robot can't cope with sticky ice cream like a human can
@@jagdtigger Those metal de-stickers where a great idea in the 50's but they are very unsanitary, hard to clean and cause food poisoning. They are not NSF approved. and not used on a commercial basis anymore.
Redlock oh my goodness, my classmates “heated ice cream scoop” actually serves a real purpose now and not just almost causing the school to burn down, haha!
Painfully slow auto ice cream vender aside; I hope things are OK for you and the family with all the high temperatures and fire outbreaks? Hopefully it won't approached your area, and I'm wishing you and Australia all the best. From Devon UK.
Dave, you're looking at it from an EE standpoint. Kids don't care about efficiency. Consider a child's (who's father isn't involved in EE) reaction to this. It's actually quite kool.
The simple solution to speeding this up is to have a tool changer so each ice cream flavor can have its own scoop, completely eliminating the huge time waste of constantly cleaning one scoop.
there are so many ways you can improve the automation so it delivers this faster, but i'll bet it wouldn't be as aesthetically pleasing. it's got be cooler than it is functional. Old job had a frozen yogurt robot vendor and that thing would break down all the friggin time.
This is what I was thinking too. This could be MUCH faster but it wouldn't be as much of a customer-attracting spectacle, and this way people feel like they get a show for the extra cost they almost certainly pay for the ice cream vs. a normal human server.
It looks very much like the robot they were saying was supposed to be talking to the elderly in Japanese care homes so they would get at least SOME social interaction when being ignored by their children - Anyone else remember that from a few years back?
true, all the while ignoring the huge carbon footprint of the refined metals, plastics, production and assembly of parts, factories, supply chains, etc., required to get that robot from dirt to retail establishment. don't get me wrong, robotic machinery has a place in the economy, but this thing is an expensive gimmick.
Guys... It's "disneyland thing" for the kids.. it's not about efficiency. Robots do pack ice cream pretty well and quickly, just check your local super market for the results... :D
This is right across from my work. Yeah a great novelty but I was also very unmpressed by the speed and especially the pricing! There were two humans there anyway and I asked about when it breaks, and they have a backup human, lmao.
All that money, R&D and manufacturing for such an slow and inefficient machine, an human would've served 5 people in the time it took that robot to do 2 scoops of ice cream, unbelievable.
To be fair a geared down Prusa printer or Delta with a spoon would be like $500 and 10x faster, but I think they are going for “wow” factor using probably a $50k arm probably meant for precision welding and bolt placement in cars. It’s just a tourist attraction or gimmick at this point to tease the idea, once people think it’s cool then the practical and cheap ones will come (I could automate a whole McDonnalds in a year, and that’s not really a bad thing because frankly those people could be doing something more interesting or something they care about more, one job that will not be capable to replace is cleaning because that’s a freaken challenge, you need like full hands and arm with visual recognition of dirt and clean tables top and bottom and clean floors mopping them stuff and just every nook and cranny is just a total pain, like a robot to take over a janitor would be like litteral millions! Flipping a burger or scooping and weighing fries is simple, but a janitor is nearly impossible. These people though could do other things, more skilled and more fun things, and for those that can’t (like my mom knows someone that’s excited about their new job as a Walmart door greater), well there is always the nice thing of human interaction so there will be the waiters and such (though even as a kid I found it novel to use a robot to bring me drinks and trays of food). Plus there will need to be higher paid jobs like service technicians, programmers and coders, the machinests making the parts or factory workers making castings or bearings (or maintaining those factory assembly lines), or the engineers creating the designs and their managers and sales team selling the bots and architects remodeling the kitchen for bots and of course a backup crew for when the bots crash from some stupid update. Like there won’t be fewer jobs, if anything there will be more and higher paying and more fulfilling than flipping burgers. At worse we end up lowering the standard work day to 30 hours per week and have to spend more time with human families or recreation time (oh no!). But realistically prices of luxury items like fast food would come down (good for everyone), and people get more advanced jobs. For those that can’t (disabled or not mentally skilled etc), there are plenty of other jobs that would be a total pain in the _____ to automate, they might not all be fun, but again still probably more exciting than scooping ice cream or burgers. I’m a mechanical engineer that loves making robots, wouldn’t you live a diaper change robot? I’ve heard they would be popular amount new parents! Even rentals! But I’ve also worked fast food and have to say, yeah it’s not super exciting, it’s not like it’s Hell or difficult but it’s exhausting being on your feet for 10+ hour days when a robot wouldn’t be complaining about 24/7 convenience fast food, and trust me I really wanted to automate the job (kind of like McDonnalds with the auto drink filler bot in drive through, or a roomba, it just makes life a little easier so you have time for the more important things, but yes I still wash dishes manually because I’m cheap, but thank God for clothes washers I’ve done that by hand in a bucket and it’s insane for just a few articles of clothing!)
Ideally I'd install that Niska robot in a shopping mall within a food court, have it message when its done using a novelty ice cream card. While looking for the best pair of sunglasses. more of a leisurely device.
I can't wait to show my kids the wonders of the natural world & the various feats of human engineering, only to never allow 2 seconds to pass with out me shitting all over the experience and ingrain my children with mind for cynicism and a heart that's black with disenchantment.
What a way not to admire the technology involved and processes involved in the implementation . Not to mention the fun factor /novelty involved with being served by a robot.
omnimacrox my 3d printed even on slow screw z axis would be faster (and it has a heating element for the scoop attachment). Like seriously, why is a $300 desktop rep rap not just geared down for this?
So you have ice cream to be scoped at one end and then put the sink the other end so it has to travel? Surely put another sink where the other lot of ice cream is so the arm doesn't have to move.
Working for a company that builds custom laser hardening and cladding machines I know how fast robot's can go and this ice cream robot is ridiculous slow... Honestly, when I have the choice, I would prefer to be served by a human. Nice tech demo but nothing the real world needs.
There's just something really odd with the head of those robots holding just a screen. Robots really aren't useful when it comes to ice cream I guess lol
It should have to spoons that rotate. And wash them both when done the order. You wouldn't even notice cause no human would take 10seconds to order especially icecream 😅
needs another washing station over to the right and maybe dual wield at the very least at this rate, your icecream would be melted before it even got to you
This is why I think a national basic wage system is the future, where every citizen is given a minimum amount of money to live on every year and anything they earn on top of that is a bonus. Several studies have shown how productivity increases when an individual's concerns about paying for basics like housing and food are taken care of. I'd expect such a system to be funded quite easily by a small tax on the companies choosing to 'employ' robots instead of humans, while still allowing them to profit from it. To be honest, I think it's an inevitablity in the civilised world, and maybe even in the US.
@@dan_ That assumes a static system. Companies knowing people are getting "free money" will just increase prices to get it. Look at how Obamacare affected healthcare. Premiums skyrocketed, deductibles skyrocketed, coverage declined. Why, because they knew the government was picking up the check. Also, from a psychological perspective, people do better working...any job. People who don't work have much higher rates of mental health issues. Working gives purpose. Take that away and society as a whole will suffer.
Make it fast wasn't the goal obviously. Otherwise it could easily do exactly the same movements much faster. Watching how the robot slowly preparing an ice cream is a part of amusement process you paid for, so it is slow on purpose. They could make a button to choose between slow and demonstrative performance and fast practical order though.
Those two slow scoops don't require holiday pay, wasn't late to work, wasn't sleeping with a coworker or stealing stock... it always comes down to money
And everytime it stuffs up an order you can't get a replacement etc... Just like online orders were they make returns not worth it a lot of the time. They can send junk and not care about a return.
When programmer makes a machiene... Wth isnt washing done on the same platform? Why arent there two washing stations by each icecream area? Someone was thinking with their but obviously....
