RoboBurger and the Push Toward an Automated Workforce
If you’re like me, you grew up watching re-runs of The Jetsons. One of the aspects of the show that most appealed to six-year-old me was the automated utopian version of the future. Robots doing all the household chores, flying cars, houses floating in the sky, and every screen seemed to facilitate video calls.
It’s probably one of the reasons I love science fiction as an adult.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen things that were once exclusively in the realm of sci-fi become reality. Tablets from Star Trek, robot house cleaners (though the Roomba is a far cry from Rosie from the Jetsons), and even working concept models of flying cars.
So, naturally, a story about a hamburger-making robot caught my attention.
At the end of March, the world’s first publicly available automated hamburger vending machine opened for business in the Newport Centre Mall in New Jersey[1].
“RoboBurger,” as it’s called, was created by three engineers with a passion for robotics and burgers. They claim “RoboBurger is an autonomous, robotic chef in a box, that transforms a frozen patty into a hot, freshly prepared burger in minutes, for only $5.99[2].”
The description may conjure visions of automation we’ve seen in TV shows like The Jetsons or Futuramma —…
