Chopping Vegetables and Serving Trays... 'Cooking Robot' Takes Over the Cafeteria

Expansion of Samsung Welstory Cooking Robots
From Preprocessing to Cooking, Serving, and Cleaning
Implementation of 18 Types of Automated Equipment Throughout the Entire Process

Samsung Welstory announced on the 16th that it will expand the application of cooking robots introduced in group catering to other business sites.

Last year, Samsung Welstory, which introduced WelliBot, a specialized cooking robot corner, for the first time in the group catering industry, plans to expand the application of advanced automated equipment consisting of 18 types that can be applied not only to cooking but also to the entire process of preprocessing, serving, and washing in catering business sites.

The lineup of 18 automated solutions built by Samsung Welstory is characterized by increasing the diversity of automated equipment that can be applied according to the size and characteristics of the business site, covering not only cooking but also preprocessing, serving, and washing.

The cooking robot was introduced in a lightweight form so that it can be used even in small and medium-sized business sites where it is difficult to introduce large-scale facilities or where the amount cooked at one time is relatively small. The lightweight cooking robots include AutoWok, which automatically cooks various stir-fried dishes according to a set recipe algorithm, and a frying robot composed of a fryer and a robotic arm.

The preprocessing automation solution is equipment for medium to large catering business sites that need to preprocess more than 1 ton of ingredients per day, consisting of a large-scale chopper, diced slicer, and vegetable stick cutter. It is expected to improve operational efficiency by automating simple repetitive tasks of preprocessing large amounts of ingredients and also help prevent musculoskeletal disorders and safety accidents of workers caused by repetitive work.

Representative serving automation solutions include tray dispensers and cutlery dispensers that automatically provide sterilized trays and utensils when an employee ID card is tagged or a hand is brought close to a sensor. In business sites, automatic meal management is possible by linking employee ID tagging and tray provision, and customers can use individually sterilized utensils with ultraviolet sterilization, which is hygienic.

The washing automation equipment includes fully automatic cup washers that use high-temperature, high-pressure washing water. The entire process from cup collection to washing and sterilization is automatic, and the collected cups are washed, sterilized, dried, and stored inside the equipment until used by customers, preventing cross-contamination.

Samsung Welstory expects that when introducing automated solutions, each piece of equipment can replace work time from a minimum of 30 minutes to a maximum of 4 hours, reducing the workload of cooks and helping to alleviate the labor shortage in the catering industry.

A Samsung Welstory official said, "Since 2017, we have been promoting kitchen infrastructure innovation and have built automated solutions applicable to various catering business sites, including advanced cooking robots like WelliBot." He added, "We will continue to diversify the lineup of automated solutions to lead the automation of the catering industry and present a future-oriented catering operation model through this."