Pizza robot has £2.3m slice of EU science fund
THE European Union is spending millions of euros on developing a robot that can make pizza.
The robot has visual sensors in its head to “see” in real time and uses software to train itself to act like a pizza chef. It is learning how to knead, stretch, toss and twirl dough, add ingredients and slide it into an oven.
Rodyman, which is short for Robotic Dynamic Manipulation, is a five-year project supported by a €2.5million (£2.3million) grant from the European Research Council. The council was set up by the European Commission in 2007 and funds research.
“Preparing a pizza involves an extraordinary level of agility and dexterity,” Bruno Siciliano, who directs the robotics research group at the University of Naples Federico II, told Scientific American. Researchers hope the technology will lead to a new more precise and responsive generation of robots.
Rodyman is learning how to toss and spin pizza dough, without tearing it. The more it practises, the better it gets at the delicate technique.
To guide the robot, Mr Siciliano’s team recruited Enzo Coccia, a master pizza chef, to wear a suit of movementtracking sensors. Rodyman will make his public debut at the Naples pizza festival in May 2018 but, according to Mr Siciliano, will never replace the real thing.
“I would never eat a pizza made by a robot,” he said. “It would not have the taste a real pizzaiolo, with his soul, would put in it.”
The European Research Council awards grants to competing researchers. Britain is thought to be keen to maintain a relationship with EU research programmes after Brexit. “We will also welcome agreement to continue to collaborate with our European partners on major science, research, and technology initiatives,” Theresa May said in January.
In February, MPS were told that British researchers were being removed from applications for EU research grants by their European colleagues because of Brexit.