US 5,132,914 · Granted 1992-07-21

The Robot That Cooks Your Fast Food Dinner

Back in 1992, a company patented a fully robotic kitchen that could cook french fries, chicken nuggets, and fish fillets completely on its own. A robot arm grabbed raw food from a storage bin, placed it in a cooker, pulled it out when done, and stacked it in a holding area—all controlled by a computer, with zero humans touching the food during cooking.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a complete automated cooking system where a robot arm handles the entire cycle: retrieving bulk uncooked food from a dispensing station, positioning it in a cooking apparatus, removing the cooked food, and delivering it to storage. What's protected here is the integration of robotics, food dispensing, cooking equipment, and storage into one coordinated computer-controlled workflow designed to cook foods like chicken nuggets and fish filets without human intervention during the cooking process itself.

Why it matters

This patent represents an early vision of automating the labor-intensive fast food kitchen. In the early 1990s, labor costs and consistency were major pain points for quick-service restaurants. A fully robotic cooking line could theoretically run 24/7, produce consistent results, and reduce staffing needs. While the technology didn't become ubiquitous as patented, it established a foundational claim to the concept of robotic food preparation—a category that's seen renewed interest as automation and labor shortages reshape restaurant economics decades later.

Real-world use

If you've ever waited in a long line at a fast food restaurant and wondered why it takes so long to cook a batch of fries, this patent imagined a robot doing all that work in the background, pulling food in and out of fryers automatically to keep orders flowing.

Original USPTO abstract

A fully automated robotized system and method is provided for cooking food products. The system and method is especially useful for use in a quick service or fast food restaurant and, in one embodiment, is capable of cooking, on a fully automated basis, french fries, chicken nuggets, fish filets and chicken patties. In one embodiment, the system includes a robot, a bulk uncooked food dispensing station, a cooking station and a cooked food storage station. The system can be controlled by a computer operating and control station that controls and directs the robot to obtain bulk food from the dispensing station, place it in cooking position at the cooking station and when cooked, remove the food and deliver it to the storage station, at a rate required to fill anticipated customer orders.

Patent details

Publication number: US 5,132,914
Filing date: 1990-04-30
Grant date: 1992-07-21
Assignee: Restaurant Technology, Inc.
Inventor(s): CAHLANDER; ROBERT L., CARROLL; DAVID W., HANSON; ROBERT A., HOLLINGSWORTH; AL, REINERTSEN; JOHN O.
CPC class: G07F17/0085

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