Hyundai Robotics, KFC team up to make chicken-frying robot chefs

Hyundai Robotics Co. and global fried chicken franchise KFC have agreed to jointly develop automated chicken-frying robots as the South Korean industrial robot maker is expanding its business into the fast-growing food technology market.

Hyundai Robotics, a unit of Korea’s top shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co., said on Oct. 23 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with KFC’s Korean office to co-develop collaborative robots that will help human workers prepare food at KFC.

In KFC kitchens, human workers will take care of delicate work such as the seasoning of chicken meat while robots made by Hyundai Robotics will be responsible for dangerous work such as frying and grilling.

Hyundai Robotics said in a statement that the robots will have various sensors embedded with vision-sensing technology to recognize each step in the food processing.

In KFC restaurants with spacious kitchens, robots will be fixed to worktables, while wheeled mobile collaboration robots will be deployed at franchises with smaller kitchens, it said.

“The collaborative robots will improve work safety by taking over dangerous and repetitive work from humans. We also expect the automated system to process orders more quickly,” Hyundai Robotics said.

FOOD TECH TAKES OFF IN COVID-19 ERA

Food tech, which applies state-of-the-art technology to the food industry, is attracting the attention of both IT and food industry officials amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The global food-tech market is forecast to grow at an average rate of 5.8% a year to 298 trillion won ($264 billion) by 2022, Hyundai Robotics said, citing a report from market research firm Research and Markets.

In Korea’s fast-food market, KFC has led the digital transformation by being first to adopt digital kiosks at all of its outlets. Other fast-food franchises such as McDonald’s and Burger King followed suit.

ROBOTICS, HYUNDAI HEAVY’S NEW GROWTH ENGINE

Chung Ki-sun, vice president of Hyundai Heavy, has pushed robotics as one of the group’s new growth engines.

Hyundai Robotics, which has manufactured industrial robots, is now developing service robots that can be used in hotels and restaurants.

Hyundai Robotics has joined hands with Korea’s top telecom company KT to develop its first mobile service robot, UNI, and began pilot service at a Seoul hotel in January.

“COVID-19 has opened new doors of opportunity in the food-tech industry. We’ll develop various robots to meet growing demand,” said Hyundai Robotics Chief Operating Officer Seo Yoo-seong.

Write to Man-Su Choe at bebop@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.