Gastronomy: New cooking robot from GoodBytz in Hamburg, Germany

Aitme gets competition: Dr. Henrik Susemihl, long-time companion of David Reger, and his team from GoodBytz showed today what they have been working on for the last two years. This means that there are once again at least two active cooking robot providers in Germany. At DaVinci Kitchen (Leipzig), no activity has been apparent for some time. The current CEO is based in the Calvinist city of Geneva, which is known more for private equity than robotics. The pop-up store in Leizpig has long since closed. (Lausanne, neighboring Geneva, on the other hand, is home to some very interesting robotics startups, including Isochronic).

GoodBytz uses trade fair for premiere

The Hamburg-based startup used the Internorga trade show (also in Hamburg) to drop the curtain on its robot station. The station is similar to Aitme's and also uses two Universal Robots to prepare food. This hardware alone suggests that a "kitchen" will cost well over €100,000 - I wouldn't be surprised at €200,000 either. The video shows the great functionality, but also complexity of the mechanics. The startup, apparently valued at around €12 million, also immediately presented a cooperation partner in the form of Sodexo. Sodexo will start using GoodBytz in two kitchens in late summer.

Extensive food portfolio

The menu portfolio includes soups, fried dishes, noodle dishes, curries and bowls. These dishes are selected via a display or app. Every now and then, the ingredients for the dishes have to be poured in. As the photo at the bottom of the video suggests, the pantries are decidedly large. Buying prepackaged ingredients is not a problem, as I learned last summer from operations managers at a large ski resort. This one has well over 10,000 guests at lunchtime alone during the season. This huge number suggests that cycle times are critical. GoodyBytz, after all, does 3,000 meals a day with one station. The question is in what time frame. Because from morning to evening is of little use as a result of off-peak times. In this respect, the restaurant industry is a difficult case for automation. The core times from 12:00 to perhaps 13:30 and two hours in the evening have to be covered. Of course, it can be different in canteens or train stations. These locations are probably predestined.

Why always Universal Robots?

I find it remarkable that almost all stations - be it welding or cooking - rely on Universal Robots. "We are simply the best," the Danes will say. But ultimately this also shows that there is no differentiation via the robot. It just has to be solid and may well cost something. It would be interesting to find out how high the share of sales at Universal Robots is that goes to stations and thus no longer requires classic sales work. Welding cell suppliers such as Trumpf or Demmeler are said to buy a significantly higher number of units.

This article was recently published on gastronomy: Link (By the way, the author also knows a lot about service robots - see offer below the video).

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