Burger Robot: From White Castle Grills to ABB Kitchens

A burger robot is easy to picture and hard to build well. The patty, the bun, the lettuce and the sauce all behave differently, and a restaurant has to put them together in under a minute, thousands of times a week. Recent headlines have been about robots at the drive-thru speaker instead of the grill, with Burger King and Chick-fil-A both questioning voice AI in late 2026. This post follows how the hamburger line was built by people, how the first burger machines tried to copy it, and where ABB robots such as the IRB 360 FlexPicker and YuMi now work.

A White Castle building in Minneapolis, from the chain that began in Wichita in 1921. Photo: McGhiever / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

How the hamburger line was invented

The modern burger line began in 1921, when the first White Castle opened in Wichita, Kansas. Billy Ingram and Walter Anderson ran it as a system as much as a restaurant. According to histories of the fast food industry, White Castle standardized restaurant construction and built an early supply chain, and equipment such as the grill and spatula was standardized too. The point was that every castle should serve the same small burger in the same way, whichever cook was on shift. That idea of repeatable work, written down and measured, is what later made automation possible.

The McDonald's No. 1 Store Museum in Des Plaines, Illinois, lit at night with its 15 cent hamburger sign. Photo: Jerry Huddleston / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

McDonald's took the idea further. Its Speedee Service System built on principles, systems and practices that White Castle had already established between 1923 and 1932. The kitchen became a production line with a fixed station for each step, and the goal was speed and sameness. A century later, the same layout still runs most burger kitchens. It also explains why the work is a natural target for robots: the steps are fixed, repeated and timed.

Patties on a charcoal grill, the step Flippy was built to take over. Photo: U.S. Air Force via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Robots first tried the grill. In March 2018 a machine called Flippy, a wheeled cart with a six axis arm made by Miso Robotics, started work at CaliBurger in Pasadena, California. It was pulled offline after a single day because it could not keep up with demand, and it still needed people to place patties and add toppings. The next idea was to build the whole kitchen around the machine. In 2025 BurgerBots did that in Los Gatos, with the meal box moving past robots on a conveyor.

A BurgerBots meal box with bun and toppings prepared for assembly. Photo: ABB

Where ABB robots fit in burger kitchens

The recent news is about customers rather than cooks. In late September 2026 Burger King's vice president of brand technologies, Chakri Somisetti, told the FSTEC conference that forcing AI voice ordering on guests had backfired, with drive-offs because guests did not want to talk to a bot. The company is building a way to choose a human and keeps testing in 50 to 70 locations. Chick-fil-A's chief executive, Andrew Cathy, told CNBC that the chain is not pursuing voice ordering at its drive-thru lanes.

A drive-thru lane at a McDonald's, where voice AI has been tested. Photo: Michael Steeber / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Chick-fil-A did say it will use AI behind the scenes, and coverage of its McDonough, Georgia restaurant describes a conveyor that delivers meals to workers every six seconds. That is the split now forming, even as rivals go the other way: coverage in October noted that McDonald's plans to test a drive-thru assistant called Archy and Wendy's has rolled out one called FreshAi. Talking to a guest is risky, while moving food inside the kitchen is welcome. Customers who dislike talking to a bot lose nothing if the robot stays behind the pass, and a kitchen robot never needs to speak with anyone. It only needs to pick up the right ingredient and put it in the right place. That is where industrial arms are strongest.

A BurgerBots box on the conveyor beneath ABB's IRB 360 FlexPicker arms. Photo: ABB

ABB's own project shows how. At BurgerBots in Los Gatos, California, announced in April 2025, an IRB 360 FlexPicker delta robot selects toppings at high speed as a box moves down a conveyor, guided by a QR code. A YuMi cobot then does the final assembly. ABB says the process takes about 27 seconds per burger, and its controller connects to inventory systems for real time ingredient tracking. Our post on ABB robots in fast food kitchens covers the wider picture.

An ABB IRB 360 FlexPicker delta robot picks toppings above the BurgerBots line. Photo: ABB

What comes next for the burger robot

For restaurants, the open question is cost against labor. A cell with a delta robot, a cobot, a conveyor and food safe guarding is a serious investment, and a franchisee needs it to pay back faster than a new hire. Chains also vary their menus often, so a robot kitchen must change recipes without a week of reprogramming. Teams usually test layouts and cycle times first in RobotStudio, since changing a real kitchen once built is expensive.

An ABB dual arm YuMi cobot puts the finishing touches on a burger at BurgerBots in Los Gatos, California. Photo: ABB

The part ABB does not yet claim is the grill. No source says an ABB robot cooks patties in a commercial kitchen, so any such job is only a possibility. Cooking raw meat also adds food safety rules that topping selection avoids. A hygienic arm such as the IRB 1200 Hygienic, built for food handling, could in principle load a griddle, but heat, grease and cleaning make that harder than picking toppings. For homes, a burger robot is a different product: small, cheap and safe near children, with none of the speed requirements of a drive-thru lane.

A BurgerBots topping cell with lettuce and sliced ingredients ready for the robot. Photo: ABB

Safety and skills matter as much as speed. Robots working beside staff need speed and force limits, and kitchen crews need training to clear jams, refill bins and handle the occasional wrong order. The Burger King survey figures are a reminder that guests have views too: Technomic found 46 percent saw AI ordering as a turnoff. A burger robot that stays out of sight, and turns out the same sandwich every time, may be an easier sell than one that talks. See also our overview of ABB robot use cases.

A cheeseburger in its wrapper, the build a robot line has to repeat every time. Photo: Luke / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Innovation

AI solutions for effortless ABB robot control.

Automation

Robotics

ceojohntran@chatwithrobot.net

+84905311611

© 2025. All rights reserved.

qtran1215@gmail.com