Student-Created Wok Robot Can Cook 600 Chinese Dishes

Here at PopSci we’re always looking for the best and baddest in robotics news. But this week — National Robotics Week — we’ll be ratcheting up our coverage, highlighting some of the most thought-provoking, future-driven concepts in robo-tech each day.

Haters of cooking and lovers of cashew chicken rejoice: a joint effort by students at Yangzhou University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and a business in Shenzhen have created a fully-automated robot that can cook 600 classic Chinese dishes with a simple touchscreen selection.

Although details of the invention process have yet to be released, sources report that one only needs to dispense the ingredients into the machine, program it, and await a delicious meal.

There’s no demonstration video yet either, but in the meantime, an earlier version at 2009’s Chinese Industry Fair here whips up an order of kung pao chicken. Skip ahead to 0:30 to see the mechanical chef in action.

Between the Chinese cooking robot and the German kebab-slicing robot, perhaps it’s only a matter of time before human cooks become a quaint anachronism.

[via Sina]