The Project
Futuristic labs is a company that aims at automating the cooking process inside common households through product innovation. A team of 6 mechanical engineers and 16 in total strength including other domains like software and embedded system.
The Prompt
To develop a cooking machine that can cook for 2-4 people a curry and rice while letting the user load ingredients and walk away for the whole process.
The Product
1. The liquid sections was responsible for delivering the oil and water to the curry vessel with accurate time and quantity.
2. Ingredient rack was designed to deliver ingredients to the curry vessel through a dispensing hole and was divided into 10 equal partitions.
3. 10 Spice pods along with a delivery mechanism were developed to deliver the correct amount of spices to the curry vessel.
4. The designed curry vessel that allows the delivery of spices, ingredients and water while cooking.
5. A weighing scale for loading the ingredients in the correct amount.
6. Rice section that allows cooking rice for a maximum 4 servings.
7. A standard induction with fine temperature control for through a protruding temperature sensor that achieves repeatable results.
The Process
• Different team members were defined as section owners where they were responsible for delivering that particular function end to end.
• Successive parallel iterations were being performed on each and every section with a defined boundary for the solution.
• Everyone else also had the responsibility as collaborator where they were the next person joining the smaller team if the team is facing difficulty solving the problem.
• A complete product development cycle was followed.
• Team was able to solve the problems in each section and fabricate an engineering prototype that can perform all the functions in the spec sheet.
PHASE 5
Production
Ramp-up
PHASE 4
Testing and Refinement
PHASE 3
Detail Design
PHASE 2
System Level Design
PHASE 1
Concept Development
PHASE 0
Planning
The Design Iterations
1. Successive iteration on the spice Pod and the final design for 4 types of pods depending on the granule size for the engineering prototype.
2. A picture of the arm prototype with attached to the main body.
3. Position of the steam section in the machine along with how it is being delivered to the ingredient section for steaming food items.
4. Architecture of the liquid section and how it delivers oil and water to the curry section.
5. Different prototypes of previous versions of Riku.
6. The final engineering prototype being assembled in the workshop.
7. One of our favorite Chicken Tikka Masala cooked by Riku.
The project was published in the Reddot Design Awards 2021 and the team is currently working towards setting up production for the product along with scaling up and working on new projects within the eco-system of automated cooking.