• More fast food chains than ever are testing robots and AI to cut costs.

• Advanced technology can be used to decrease the number of workers needed for food preparation and service.

• Robots are being used to take orders, prepare food, and even deliver it to customers.

Some fast food and fast casual chains are integrating robots into their prep lines.

A worker shortage and rising labor price are making hiring and retaining workers more expensive, so robots are a way to cut costs. Some are still in the works, while others are already serving food.

White Castle has a robot cook, Flippy, from Miso Robotics.

Source: Insider

The original model could place baskets in the fryer, shake baskets in oil, and monitor for appropriate cooking time to make chicken tenders and tater tots.

Flippy works by moving back and forth in the kitchen while attached to an overhead rail.

Flippy can take over some of the more dangerous kitchen tasks, like deep frying, behind a safety shield to protect staff from hot oil.

Flippy manages the fryer station, allowing back-of-house fast-food workers to focus on other tasks.

Flippy uses AI to identify the food in the bin, pick it up, distribute it in the fryer, and move into the holding area after cooking.

Miso also released Flippy Wings, which makes chicken wings using the same process.

Buffalo Wild Wings has also tested Flippy Wings.

Miso's most recent robot is CookRight Coffee, being tested at Panera right now.

The system uses artificial intelligence to monitor coffee volume and temperature, so workers don't manually have to check those levels.

The AI technology allows Panera employees to brew a new pot of coffee at precisely the right time.

"We are thrilled that Panera shares in our vision to revamp the coffee monitoring process, and can't wait for CookRight Coffee to be installed at their restaurants to help customers and team members alike," Miso CEO Mike Bell said in a statement.

Chipotle is testing Chippy, an AI kitchen assistant that will help make its tortilla chips, in its California test kitchen.