Robot-Supported Food Experiences

Robots are increasingly taking up roles in society to support and interact with humans in various contexts including the home, health-care, production and assembly lines, among others. Much of the research focuses on efficiency, speed, accuracy of repetitive tasks, and in most cases the robot simply replaces and performs work tasks originally performed by humans. Looking beyond the simple replacement of humans with robotic servants, we focus on increasing creativity and pleasurable experiences supported by robots for the preparation, serving and consumption of food. This is a culturally rich area to design for, which is steeped in tradition, social norms and expectations. How can robots play a role in this context? We observed and interviewed chefs to gain a sense for opportunities for robotic technologies. We then created nine exploratory video prototypes involving food preparation with a robotic arm taking departure in themes of haute cuisine, “plating”, and the arts in order to show some of the capabilities of robots and to spark their imagination for possible future uses of robots in the kitchen. Through questionnaires and interviews, we gained feedback from ten chefs with resulting themes including harsh criticism and resistance to robots as well as desire and interest for robots to support food experiences as a partner in the restaurant. We discuss emergent themes from the feedback and provide discussion on future work needed to explore robots as partners in creative contexts.