Engineers at Miso’s Innovation Lab with the next-generation Flippy Fry Station. Source: Miso Robotics
Miso Robotics Inc. today launched its next-generation Flippy Fry Station robot. The company said the system runs on its Kitchen AI to automate the preparation of French fries, onion rings, chicken, tacos, and other fried foods.
“Being the first mover in fry station automation has brought years of successes, surely a few failures, and mountains of proprietary data and learnings for Miso,” stated Rich Hull, CEO of Miso. “Now all of those important experiences combine to make this game-changing new generation of Flippy the most reliable fry station automation product in the market.”
The Pasadena, Calif.-based company asserted that Flippy Fry Station automates the frying process with “unmatched” precision, consistency, and efficiency, delivering a return on investment (ROI) to its customers “from Day 1.”
New system improves safety to ‘unlock’ labor pool
Attending the fry station is one of the most dangerous jobs in commercial kitchens, noted Miso Robotics. Almost 80% of fast-food employees have sustained burns within the past year, according to a 2024 survey conducted by Hart Research Associates on behalf of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.
Unlike traditional frying stations, federal regulations allow employees under 18 years of age to operate Flippy Fry Station, helping quick-serve restaurants (QSRs) with workforce challenges, said Miso.
“At a time of massive labor disruption and restaurants’ inability to hire enough kitchen workers, the new Flippy creates immediate, provable customer ROI, while also unlocking much-needed additional pools of labor under federal guidelines by reducing the danger to workers,” added Hull.
Flippy Fry Station is designed to be smarter, faster
Miso Robotics said the next-generation Flippy Fry Station is based on five years of lessons and protected by more than 25 patents. It is designed to addresses key operational challenges for restaurants with the following features:
Scalable reliability: As Flippy evolves from its previous experimental “innovation product” to a now-scalable, industrial product, reliability is paramount for restaurant operators, said the company. It claimed that new Flippy is the most reliable fry-station automation product on the market.
Compact design: The new model features a 50% reduction in size, making it adaptable to a wider range of existing kitchen layouts with minimal aisle space needed.
Installs in hours: Installation can now occur overnight — a 75% reduction — and eliminates the prior need for wall mounts, most kitchen modifications, and a slew of legacy permitting obligations, according to Miso.
Enhanced vision and speed: Equipped with a smaller, faster robotic arm and an AI vision system developed with NVIDIA, the new Flippy can process more than 100 baskets per hour—almost twice as many as humans.
Better team experience: Flippy Fry Station’s upgraded user interface features LED lights, intuitive modes, and a grease-resistant display. Miso said this has simplified onboarding and made daily operations easier and more enjoyable for employees. It said the automation can improve retention and make hiring of tech-savvy Gen Z workers easier.
Other benefits: The base package includes 24/7 support in English and Spanish through a modernized support infrastructure, warranty, preventive maintenance, and a basic data package. Optional add-ons include point-of-sale (POS) integration and enhanced data.
Miso works with partners to address QSR needs
Miso Robotics It began piloting the latest version of Flippy at certain White Castle locations in late 2024.
Compared with the prior version, the new Flippy is half the size, twice as fast, far more reliable, and installs in existing kitchens overnight in just a few hours — 75% less time, said Miso. The company designed the system with restaurant partners, including longtime partner White Castle, to cater to QSR operators’ expectations.
“With no upfront costs and a rental price of $5,400 per month, the new generation of Flippy generally costs less than the equivalent full-time employees (FTEs), so there is little downside for restaurant operators,” observed Dennis Lock, Miso’s head of sales. “Plus, Flippy can drive $5,000 to $20,000 of new prime cost reductions and revenue increases per month through labor redeployment to higher-value tasks, faster speed of service, and reduced food waste.”
“We’ve spent a great deal of time over the past months to create real-world case studies that quantify the substantial labor, speed-of-service, and food-waste benefits that the new generation of Flippy Fry Station creates for a restaurant’s bottom line,” said Rob Seely, assistant vice president for operations, strategy, and design at WD Partnersa restaurant industry consultancy.
“In a market where labor shortages and labor costs can no longer be passed onto customers through menu price increases, Flippy and kitchen automation like it provide the restaurant industry’s best solution,” he added.
Miso has scheduled rollouts to additional White Castle locations, Jack in the Box, and several other large brands for early 2025 in both corporate and franchisee locations.
Ecolab makes Flippy Fry Station easier to clean, adds channel
Hygiene systems provider Ecolab is among the investors in Miso Robotics. Miso also credited its strategic partner for the advances in Flippy.
It said Ecolab’s expertise has helped to enhance the robot’s cleaning speed and procedures, as well as food-safety capabilities. In addition to Miso’s in-house sales team, Ecolab now also offers its customers Flippy rentals through a dedicated sales team supported by Ecolab’s 6,000 sales professionals.
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