Robotics technologies are finding their way into the food production chain, from agriculture robots ‘working’ on farms, to 3D food printers generating customized dishes in the kitchen. In this Viewpoint, two roboticists, Hod Lipson and Salah Sukkarieh, discuss the possible roles of robotics in shaping the future of food, highlighting how robots may be able to produce more, healthier and sustainable foods with fewer resources and a lower carbon footprint.
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Salah Sukkarieh is Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Sydney. Over the last 20 years, he has been researching, developing and commercializing field robots focusing on sustainable agriculture in Australia. Salah Sukkarieh has seen his work implemented in studies for smallholder farmers in Australia and the Indo-Pacific region.
Hod Lipson has been a professor of Engineering and Data Science at Columbia University in New York since 2015 before which he spent 14 years as a professor at Cornell University. He received his PhD in 1999 from the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, followed by a postdoctorate at Brandeis University and MIT. Hod Lipson’s work on self-aware and self-replicating robots challenges conventional views of robotics and has enjoyed widespread impact. He has also pioneered open-source 3D printing, as well as electronics 3D printing, bio-printing and food printing.
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Lipson, H., Sukkarieh, S. Robots may transform the way we produce and prepare food. Nat Rev Bioeng 1, 795–798 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-023-00126-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-023-00126-5