NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Chipotle Mexican Grill has unveiled Autocado, an avocado processing robotic prototype that cuts, cores and peels avocados before they are hand mashed to create the restaurant’s famous guacamole. The prototype, developed in collaboration with Vebu, is currently being tested at the Chipotle Cultivate Centre in Irvine, Calif.
Vebu worked closely with certified training managers from Chipotle’s restaurants to analyze the company’s preparation process and identify tasks that are time consuming and less favourable among crew members. Chipotle currently has individuals dedicated to cutting, coring and scooping avocados. On average, it takes approximately 50 minutes to make a batch of guacamole. However, Vebu’s team is aiming to reduce guacamole preparation time by 50 per cent.
In restaurants across the U.S., Canada and Europe this year, the company is expected to use approximately 4.5 million cases of avocados. In support of Chipotle’s sustainability initiatives and waste-reduction efforts, Autocado also aims to increase avocado fruit yield through precision processing, which could lead to millions of dollars in annual food cost savings if the robot is successfully developed and deployed widely.
Furthermore, Vebu is developing an artificial intelligence and machine learning stack to be connected to all its robotic solutions, where applicable. The goal is for future iterations of Autocado to use machine learning and sensor fusion to evaluate the quality of the avocados and quantify waste reduction as well as the efficiency of the cutting, coring, and peeling processes.
“We’re committed to exploring collaborative robotics to drive efficiencies and ease pain points for our employees,” says Curt Garner, Chief Customer and Technology Officer at Chipotle. “The intensive labour of cutting, coring, and scooping avocados could be relieved with Autocado, but we still maintain the essential culinary experience of hand mashing and hand preparing the guacamole to our exacting standards.”
“Our purpose as a robotic company is to leverage automation technology to give workers more flexibility in their day-to-day work,” says Buck Jordan, CEO of Vebu. “Autocado has the potential to work alongside Chipotle crew members to create the same, delicious guacamole that Chipotle fans love but more efficiently than ever before.”
