"robots" news and stories

We may still be a long way from the kind of future where C3PO is on hand to decant your favorite wine for you, but it seems we're inching ever closer to the age of the robot.

To wit, the recent Fourth Robot Awards, in Japan, where two industrial food-processing robots took top prizes. The first is a machine that looks downright terrifying -- just a long, sleek robot arm with a gleaming knife welded to one end. It's the HAMDAS-R, developed by Mayekawa Electric, and it's designed to remove ham bones -- a lot of them. Five hundred in an hour, which is twice as fast as a human's capability to debone a ham.

As Popular Science reports, what's previously kept robots out of the gruesome business of meat processing is that they generally haven't been so good at telling the difference between meat and bone, leaving results that we're guessing looked something like tossing a pork chop into a blender. The HAMDAS-R, however, "is able to consistently distinguish meat from bone," which garnered it the top prize in the Small Business and Venture category.

• Robots are trying to win our hearts... through our stomachs. Enter Robo Chefs.
• Dumplings, kreplach, ravioli -- whatever the name, good things come in small packages.
• Here's an easy rabbit recipe. (Don't worry, Easter's still a ways away.)
• To knead or not to knead? That is the big bread question.
• A grownup Pepsi Challenge: 20 Belgian ales undergo a blind tasting.
• Bay Ridge's Tanoreen: Go for the Middle Eastern mezze, which come by way of the Mediterranean and North America.

Meet Chef Robot. It's the latest invention in food service, showcased on Tuesday at the International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition in Tokyo. According to the Associated Press, Chef Robot can gently grip fragile items like sushi and move them from Point A to Point B without ripping them to shreds.

One small movement for Chef Robot, one giant leap for sashimi? Who knows? But it did get us thinking about kitchen gadgets. Got a favorite?

[Via Tokyo Mango]

The number of food blogs out there grows every day hour, and while I love seeing all the new foodists on the block, they are usually all very similar in what they cover and how they cover it. Not so with A Muffin Story, a blog written by Andrea, who also writes strictly recipes on another blog, Never Bashful with Butter.

Andrea often tells cute stories with her cupcake creations, incorprating other "characters." Recently, she told the story of Rodney the Robot and his adventure on Planet Sprinkle. If for nothing else, you have to go take a peek to see if and how Rodney gets away with the cupcake he wants!

In Vienna, anyway.

The Roboexotica convention is going on in Vienna right now, and there are 30 robot bartenders mixing drinks for the attendees. Robots were invited to the event (can robots really be "invited" to anything at this point?) to "demonstrate their skills in categories such as mixing cocktails, serving drinks and snacks, bar conversation and smoking cigarettes and cigars." I wasn't aware that it took skill to smoke a cigar or what practical purpose it would serve to have a robot be able to do that, but I'm sure it looks cool as hell.

One of the more popular bartenders is Chapok, who looks like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz and is trained to make sleazy come on lines to women like "hey you sweet thing, have you ever had a date with a robot?"

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