The Los Angeles Business Journal’s Grace Harmon talked with us about the new CaliExpress by Flippy™ concept that is opening in Pasadena, CA, walking-distance from the Miso Innovation Lab.

CaliExpress by Flippy comes from a collaboration between Miso Robotics, Cali Group’s CaliBurger and PopID — fully-automating both the frying and burger stations.

From the story:

Flippy can quickly cook fried foods and is run by a robotic arm that hangs on a track above a restaurant’s frying station. After an order is rung into the system, an automatic dispenser fills a bin with the frozen food, which the arm then sets into the deep-frying machine and monitors cooking through a combination of cameras, sensors and AI algorithms. The other main piece of Miso-developed equipment, “BurgerBot,” sits in its own large machine, which looks similar to a pizza oven. The BurgerBot grinds meat to order, cooks the patty and deposits it into a container, where a human employee adds it to a bun with condiments and toppings. 

Flippy can produce about 150 orders of fries per hour, while the BurgerBot can cook about 100 patties in that time. Flippy machines are available on a leasing model with either upfront or monthly payments, which [Miso Vice President of Product Development, Alana] said provides flexibility for restaurant owners, though Miso is considering allowing customers to purchase the machines outright. The equipment can fit around existing fry machines, meaning no additional equipment purchases are necessary.