Suzumo SushiBot Can Roll 3,600 Pieces Per Hour

Although robots can do things faster, does that mean it’s better?

Asian cullinary craft is just that, a craft. It is more of an art than anything, with every cut needing to be precise and every ingredient need to be perfect down to the last drop. Once of the most celebrated of all Asian cuisines, especially in the US, is sushi. Now that the Suzumo SushiBot is in the picture, the art of sushi rolling could become obsolete completely.

At the World Food and Beverage Great Expo in Tokyo, Japan last week the SushiBot was unveiled for the first time. The SushiBot is countertop-sized, and has been reported as being able to produce 1,000 rolls per minute (approximately 3,600 pieces). Every single secong the SushiBot is grabbing rice and other ingredients and shaping the sushi. Sushi chefs are in lucky, however, because the SushiBot may be fast, but it still needs a human supplier to manually feed it the ingedients it requires. One version of the SushiBot is also designed to only produce oval mounds of rice so the chef can apply the ingredients however they see fit.

Since Suzumo’s establishment in 1961, they have been producing all kinds of food robots. An older promotional video of a 2009 SushiBot model has said they are designed to “precisely recreate the handmade taste and technique used by an experienced sushi chef.” Once they’ve created a robot to cut and mix the ingredients the set will be complete and chefs will really have nowhere to go.

No one has actually said if the SushiBot’s sushi can rival that of manmade sushi, the idea of this type of machine can really help prevent the spread of germs and disease as oppsed to being hand-rolled. The SushiBot along with a server bot could actually cater a party better with the teamwork of sushi making and ensuring the food supply never drops below a certain level. Because of the SushiBot’s incredible countertop size, it would be very useful in concession or supermarket-type places.

However, one fear with robots in general is the fact that they are quickly replacing human jobs, and though it may be much quicker, it is scary to think of going to a restaurant and seeing metal instead of humans. Hopefully, machines such as the SushiBot are here as a helping hand and not just to put hard-working people out of business. It could have a very horrible outcome with people with allergies since SushiBot cannot accomodate such requests, or even listen and respond for that matter.

Check out just how fast the machine can work below:

So what are your thoughts on this matter?