The AutoCado automates guacamole prep at Chipotle
Marie Donlon | July 29, 2023Amid a global labor shortage, fast food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill has teamed with Vebu Labs to develop an avocado-handling cobot for guacamole prep.
The aptly named AutoCado can reportedly take over the manual tasks of guacamole prep — cutting, coring and peeling avocados — thereby saving both time and resources.
Source: Chipolte and Vebu Labs
To automate those time-consuming steps involved in the manual preparation of guacamole, which can take roughly 50 minutes per batch, Chipotle employees load up the AutoCado with up to 25 lbs of avocados and the machine will orient the fruits vertically, slice them in half, remove the core and peel the skin. Once cut, cored and peeled, the AutoCado deposits the ripe avocado into a bowl at the bottom of the device where employees can mash and mix them with guacamole ingredients.
Although the device is still in the prototype stage, the makers of the AutoCado expect the machine to soon be ready for manufacture. Further, the developers of the AutoCado hope to add machine learning capabilities and sensors to the machine for determining avocado quality.