Scalable automated cooking system having small footprint and reduced labor cost

摘要

An automatic cooking system includes a computer system that stores recipes, cooking stations each comprising a cooking container that can cook food ingredients therein to produce a first cooked food, wherein the computer system can assign and schedule a plurality of dishes to be cooked at the cooking stations, storage containers configured to hold food ingredients, mini vehicles each carrying transport containers configured to hold the food ingredients, wherein the computer system can control at least some of movements of the mini vehicles in accordance to the recipes, a loading apparatus configured to load food ingredients from the storage stations to the transport containers on the mini vehicles, and an unloading apparatus that can transfer food ingredients from the transport containers on the mini vehicles to the cooking container at one of the cooking stations.