WATCH: Kawasaki’s sushi-assembling robot could be your next big kitchen purchase

By | 24 August, 2016

JAPANESE motorcycle, defense, and robotics company, Kawasaki, has produced a robot that could end up being your new favorite kitchen appliance – a sushi-assembling robot.

Kawasaki opened a robotics showroom earlier this month in Tokyo, called ‘Kawasaki Robostage’, in which they demonstrate their robots’ capabilities – which includes assembling sushi, apparently.

The sushi-bot can assemble the tasty morsels in seconds, but does not appear to be able to do any prep work, such as shaping the rice or slicing the fish. So it looks like sushi masters don’t yet need to worry about robots taking over a skill that takes 10 years to learn.

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The machine comprises of two arms, one charged with holding pre-shaped sushi rice steady while the other squeezes a tiny dollop of wasabi from a tube on it, and then, using a vacuum attachment, carefully places the prepared topping on the rice.

The other arm, which at this point seems rather lazy compared to the other, then places the completed sushi onto a wooden block.

sushibot

Kawasaki’s bot isn’t the first in its field – Sushi Robo, by robotics and machinery company Suzumo, debuted in 2012, boasting it can roll out 3,600 pieces of shaped sushi rice in an hour. If Suzumo’s preparatory robots join forces with Kawasaki’s assembly bot, sushi chefs would really have something to wring their hands about.

There has been plenty of innovation in terms of food-making robots – from 3D-printed pizzas to bartenders – but while robotics can help with efficiency, a sushi-bot takes away from the distinctive ‘specialness’ of having sushi prepared by a real person.

However, some sushi fans seem pretty excited about the possibility of having a sushi machine in their kitchens:



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