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Robots Outperform Human in Preparing Fried Chicken in South Korea

An employee prepares to serve fried chicken that was cooked by a robot at the Robert Chicken restaurant in Seoul — AFP
An employee prepares to serve fried chicken that was cooked by a robot at the Robert Chicken restaurant in Seoul — AFP
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Robots Outperform Human in Preparing Fried Chicken in South Korea

An employee prepares to serve fried chicken that was cooked by a robot at the Robert Chicken restaurant in Seoul — AFP
An employee prepares to serve fried chicken that was cooked by a robot at the Robert Chicken restaurant in Seoul — AFP

In fried-chicken-obsessed South Korea, restaurants serving the nation’s favorite fast-food dish dot every street corner. But Kang Ji-young’s establishment brings something a little different to the table: a robot is cooking the chicken.

Eaten at everything from tiny family gatherings to a 10-million-viewer live-streamed “mukbang” – eating broadcast – by K-pop star Jungkook of BTS fame, fried chicken is deeply embedded in South Korean culture.

Paired with cold lager and known as “chimaek” – a portmanteau of the Korean words for chicken and beer – it is a staple of Seoul’s famed baseball-watching experience.

The domestic market – the world’s third largest, after the United States and China – is worth about seven trillion won (RM24.7bil), but labor shortages are starting to bite as South Korea faces a looming demographic disaster due to having the world’s lowest birth rate.

Around 54% of business owners in the food service sector report problems finding employees, a government survey last year found, with long hours and stressful conditions the likely culprit, according to industry research.

Korean fried chicken is brined and double-fried, which gives it its signature crispy exterior, but the process – more elaborate than what is typically used by US fast food chains – creates additional labor and requires extended worker proximity to hot oil.

Enter Kang, a 38-year-old entrepreneur who saw an opportunity to improve the South Korean fried chicken business model – and the dish itself. “The market is huge,” Kang said at her Robert Chicken franchise. Chicken and pork cutlets are the most popular delivery orders in South Korea, and the industry could clearly benefit from more automation to “effectively address labor costs and workforce shortages”, she said.

Kang’s robot, composed of a simple, flexible mechanical arm, is capable of frying 100 chickens in two hours – a task that would require around five people and several deep fryers. But not only does the robot make chicken more efficiently – it makes it more delicious, said Kang. “We can now say with confidence that our robot fries better than human beings do,” she added.

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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)

Climate change is driving changes in rainfall patterns across the world, scientists said in a paper published on Friday, which could also be intensifying typhoons and other tropical storms.

Taiwan, the Philippines and then China were lashed by the year's most powerful typhoon this week, with schools, businesses and financial markets shut as wind speeds surged up to 227 kph (141 mph). On China's eastern coast, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of landfall on Thursday.

Stronger tropical storms are part of a wider phenomenon of weather extremes driven by higher temperatures, scientists say.

Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia at the China Academy of Sciences studied historical meteorological data and found about 75% of the world's land area had seen a rise in "precipitation variability" or wider swings between wet and dry weather.

Warming temperatures have enhanced the ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture, which is causing wider fluctuations in rainfall, the researchers said in a paper published by the Science journal.

"(Variability) has increased in most places, including Australia, which means rainier rain periods and drier dry periods," said Steven Sherwood, a scientist at the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study.

"This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods."

FEWER, BUT MORE INTENSE, STORMS

Scientists believe that climate change is also reshaping the behavior of tropical storms, including typhoons, making them less frequent but more powerful.

"I believe higher water vapor in the atmosphere is the ultimate cause of all of these tendencies toward more extreme hydrologic phenomena," Sherwood told Reuters.

Typhoon Gaemi, which first made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday, was the strongest to hit the island in eight years.

While it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, models predict that global warming makes typhoons stronger, said Sachie Kanada, a researcher at Japan's Nagoya University.

"In general, warmer sea surface temperature is a favorable condition for tropical cyclone development," she said.

In its "blue paper" on climate change published this month, China said the number of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea had declined significantly since the 1990s, but they were getting stronger.

Taiwan also said in its climate change report published in May that climate change was likely to reduce the overall number of typhoons in the region while making each one more intense.

The decrease in the number of typhoons is due to the uneven pattern of ocean warming, with temperatures rising faster in the western Pacific than the east, said Feng Xiangbo, a tropical cyclone research scientist at the University of Reading.

Water vapor capacity in the lower atmosphere is expected to rise by 7% for each 1 degree Celsius increase in temperatures, with tropical cyclone rainfall in the United States surging by as much as 40% for each single degree rise, he said.