Introduction of a autonomous robotic restaurant | By SJW Robotics
Kiosk Design SJW Robotics
SJW Robotics, a Toronto based FoodTech company, will be launching a fully autonomous robotic restaurant with zero on-site employees. The company will be demonstrating the pre-commercial unit in the fall of 2021, with a commercial rollout scheduled for Q1, 2022. At the heart of SJW Robotics shines RoWok™, a proprietary automated kitchen system that cooks made-to-order meals like an accomplished chef. Armed with high-speed mechanism, RoWok captures the essence of wok-based cooking and uses state-of-the-art sensors and automation protocols to deliver consistent quality in accordance with the highest food safety standards. The design inspiration for the unit comes from industrial food manufacturing systems and an engineering team with proven accomplishments in robotics.
SJW Robotics’ next-generation restaurant will come in the form of a 100 square-foot standalone unit. The techforward kitchen’s small footprint, plug-and-play capabilities and 24-hour accessibility will enable its implementation in a multitude of locations such as airports, hospitals, universities, grocery stores, office towers, shopping malls, stadiums and industrial complexes.
Kitchen labour difficulties as motivation for this autonomous robotic restaurant
The motivation to create RoWok stemmed from the founders’ focus on eliminating the biggest problem in the quickservice restaurant model – kitchen labour – one of the least desirable jobs. Co-founder and CEO Nipun Sharma mentions: “The quick service restaurant industry struggles with the cost, reliability and (increasingly) unavailability of labour, further eroding profit margins and exponentially increasing the operational stress. While the demand for food delivery has skyrocketed, restaurant profits have largely nose-dived. It is time for the QSR industry to evolve from running a Blockbuster Video store in a Netflix world”.
The company is forming strategic partnerships with some of the biggest foodservice operators and property developers in North America, Asia and Europe to expedite expansion as traditional limitations of real estate usability, onerous construction protocols, high rents and employee availability no longer apply.
The advantages of the autonomous robotic restaurant
RoWok’s carbon neutral footprint, high food safety standards and ai-powered inventory management systems will deliver great tasting nourishing meals at rapid speed. Crafted by award winning chefs, the recipes for RoWok utilize quality sustainable ingredients that are cooked with scientific precision and consistency – intersecting the art of cooking with the science of automation. Nipun empathizes that “we’re not in the business of selling robots – we’re in the business of selling great tasting food, period. And robotic solutions help us obtain that objective efficiently”.
“We are proud to lead the first round at SJW Robotics and very excited about the technology and the passion of the founders to deliver a scalable food robotics system. There is a huge void in the industry, and we believe SJW has a solution that can be smartly monetized and commercialized.” – Alex Norman, Partner N49P Venture Capital.
“The team at SJW Robotics has the critical skillset and experience designing smart kitchens, operating large scale food manufacturing plants, rolling out restaurant brands internationally and developing advanced electrical/robotics engineering solutions – elements that are collectively critical to execute this exciting innovation” – Bill Schultz, Angel Investor, principal at PACE Strategies, LLC, led turnarounds at Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific, Mars Incorporated and Procter & Gamble.
About SJW Robotics
SJW Robotics is a pioneering Food Tech company developing autonomous kitchen robotic systems for the hospitality industry. Drawing upon sixty years of combined experience in autonomous machine engineering, restaurant concept development and foodservice manufacturing, the company’s multi-disciplinary core team aims to reshape the foodservice industry via scalable and profitable automated solutions – intersecting the art of cooking with the science of automation.
Website: SJW Robotics
