Chipotle Mexican Grill revealed its new Autocado machine, an avocado processing cobotic (collaborative robot) prototype that cuts, cores, and peels avocados before they are hand mashed to create guacamole. The company also announced the Augmented Makeline, a cobotic makeline. Both machines are being tested in Chipotle restaurants in California—the Autocado is currently operating at Chipotle's Huntington Beach, California location and the Augmented Makeline is being utilized at the company's Corona del Mar, California location.

"These cobotic devices could help us build a stronger operational engine that delivers a great experience for our team members and our guests while maintaining Chipotle's high culinary standards," said Curt Garner, chief customer and technology officer. "Optimizing our use of these systems and incorporating crew and customer feedback are the next steps in the stage-gate process before determining their broader pilot plans."

According to Chipotle, it worked closely with Certified Training Managers from Chipotle's restaurants to analyze the company's preparation process and identify tasks that are time-consuming for crew members. In the Huntington Beach restaurant where Autocado is operating, crew members can focus on assisting with other food prep items while Autocado goes through an automated process. On average, it takes Autocado approximately 26 seconds to fully flesh out the fruit inside an avocado.

The current iteration of Autocado “features an updated design and size-agnostic avocado processing abilities, meaning that the machine recognizes variability in the fruit and automatically adjusts itself to accommodate the size of the avocados being loaded.”

Chipotle's Augmented Makeline uses “automated technology to build bowls and salads while Chipotle employees operate the top makeline to make burritos, tacos, quesadillas, and kids' meals. Approximately 65% of all Chipotle digital orders are bowls or salads, so the Augmented Makeline can improve employee efficiency and digital order accuracy, ensuring a more consistent experience for digital guests.”