So what’s the cope with rocket scientists and pizza?
No, that’s not a Jerry Seinfeld punch-line setup, however an precise query I’ve after seeing Andrew Simmon’s latest put up on Linkedin in regards to the newest pizza robotic he’s stumbled throughout. Simmons, who’s made a reputation for himself documenting his learnings as he tinkers along with his restaurant chain tech stack, wrote a couple of new pizza robotic named, properly, PZZA.
In accordance with Simmons, the PZZA robotic, which automates saucing, including cheese and toppings, and cooking the pizza, was designed by long-time aerospace engineer Omid Nakhjavani. Nakhjavani, who labored on NASA house journey initiatives for Boeing over a decade in the past (and apparently nonetheless works for Boeing), has been perfecting his pizza robotic for seven years and hopes to ship it later this yr.
Readers of The Spoon would possibly keep in mind one other pizza robotic constructed by rocket scientist Benson Tsai. After constructing a combo pizza robotic and meals truck referred to as Stellar Pizza, the previous House X engineer bought his firm this March to Hanwha Foodtech. Hanwha Foodtech, a subsidiary of Korean conglomerate Hanwha, plans to launch a pizza chain constructed round Stellar’s expertise in each the US and South Korea.
Earlier than PZZA and Stellar, rocket scientist Anjan Contractor constructed a pizza 3D printing robotic for NASA within the early aughts as a part of a contract awarded to aerospace programs subcontractor SMRC. From there, Contractor went on to launch his personal startup, BeeHex, centered on constructing robotic meals printing programs.
That there appears to be a reasonably strong rocket scientist to pizza robotic founder profession pipeline shouldn’t be all that stunning, in {that a}) the mechanical engineering self-discipline is foundational to each rocket and robotic constructing, and b) engineers love pizza.
Nakhjavani’s engineering mindset influenced a few of the design decisions for the PZZA robotic, together with the form of the pizzas. His robotic makes rectangular and sq. pizzas, partly as a result of—as Simmons recounts—”spherical pizzas aren’t environment friendly and waste issues like packing containers by being sq..”
You possibly can try the video of the PZZA in motion under and skim extra about its specs on its web site.
