Robot manufacturer Fanuc, oven manufacturer Wiesheu and retail specialist Wanzl have teamed up to develop the Bakisto automated system.

The Bakisto robot system, jointly developed by the world’s largest robot manufacturer Fanuc, the baking oven manufacturer Wiesheu and the retail specialist Wanzl, is intended to relieve supermarket and discount store employees and reduce food waste in the future. In the process, a robot will take over important work steps from loading the baking tray to inputting and removing the tray from the oven to stocking the displays.

“The increasing shortage of skilled workers is causing interest in robots to grow outside of industry as well,” says Ralf Völlinger, General Manager Robot Business Division at Fanuc Europe. “Particularly in retail or in the skilled trades, where many work steps have been carried out manually up to now, robots can bring noticeable relief.” Employees benefit, for example, through more attractive working hours, because at Bakisto the collaborative robot (cobot) could start baking independently early in the morning - and employees can sleep longer.

The robot system also helps against food waste. Bakisto uses artificial intelligence to calculate how many rolls, croissants or pastries are likely to be in demand during the course of the day, prepares the baked goods and takes them out of the oven at the right time. “Sales quantities are highly dependent on the weather, school holidays or events. Our system takes this data into account and bakes appropriate quantities,” Völlinger adds. “Bakisto” consists of three interconnected systems: A collaborative robot (Cobot) from Fanuc, Wanzl’s BakeOff i smart bakery presenter with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the network-enabled Dibas blue2 baking oven with automatic TrayMotion loading and unloading system from Wiesheu.