They create a robot that can detect if the food is at its point of salt

2 minutes read

They create a robot that can detect if the food is at its point of salt

More and more people have robots at home they cook. The truth is that they make life much easier. But there’s nothing like a good chef tasting food at different stages of cooking. What if it could also be done by robots? or more complicated, What if it could be done by mimicking human chewing? This is exactly what a team of scientists from the University of Cambridge is working on, in USAin collaboration with the Beko appliance brand.

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And, in fact, it is not the same to enjoy a meal as soon as you put it in your mouth than after chewing it a bit. When this is done, more saliva is secreted and digestive enzymes change taste cues which are then transmitted to the brain.

In addition, the food itself releases its components differently. It would be interesting if a food robot could do something similar. Therefore, these scientists decided to add this extra step to the cupping process using one of their robots.

It should be noted that what they describe in a study recently published in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI he’s still in diapers. At the moment, food robots only measure salt levels, ignoring other substances that can alter the taste. Still, their results are promising, so they hope to remake them with other ingredients, like sugar or oil.

It is true that savoring what one cooks oneself is important. In fact, There are already food robots capable of doing this. They do not taste as such, but measure the levels of different ingredients that are closely related to the taste.

Nevertheless, humans can taste and chew what they taste and that’s something a food robot can’t.

For this reason, the scientists decided to implement a proof of concept, which consists of placing a conductivity probe on a robotic arm of the android, to be used as a salinity sensor. Then, this robot had to taste a classic dish of scrambled eggs with tomato and determine if it was well salted, it was a lot or on the contrary, it lacked.

The samples were passed both pure and liquefied, so that their components are released as during chewing. Thus, created a map of flavors in different stages, ready to be judged by human tasters.

The simple fact that they can measure salinity by mimicking the different stages of chewing is a huge step forward. However, they still have many steps to take.

The goal is that food robots can use these flavor maps for different ingredients and users can adapt them to their preferences. For example, a person may want food to be more or less salty, depending on their preferences and health status.

The same goes for spices, sugar, or any other multi-flavored ingredient. Not everyone has the same preferences so the food processor must adapt to humans.

So the next step for these scientists will be exactly that. Test it with other components and, in addition, program it so that users can adjust it to their own preferences. If they succeed, the world will face the kitchen robot that most resembles a real chef.

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2 minutes read

David