CN111605935B

CN111605935B - Food cabin for intelligent kitchen system

Info

Publication number: CN111605935B
Application number: CN201910143475.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 冷鹭浩
Original assignee: New Tec Integration Xiamen Co Ltd
Current assignee: New Tec Integration Xiamen Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-02-26
Filing date: 2019-02-26
Publication date: 2023-06-16
Anticipated expiration: 2039-02-26
Also published as: CN111605935A

Abstract

The invention provides a food material pod for an intelligent kitchen system, the food material pod having: the food processing device comprises a cabin body for accommodating food materials, wherein one end of the cabin body is provided with an opening; and a food hatch disposed over the opening of the hatch and configured to seal the opening and to be controllably opened and closed. The food stuff compartment of the present invention accommodates and transfers food stuff throughout the food preparation process from food stuff entering the intelligent kitchen system to food stuff leaving the intelligent kitchen system.

Description

Food cabin for intelligent kitchen system

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of intelligent home furnishing, in particular to a food material cabin used in an intelligent kitchen system.

Background

With the development of technology, more and more intelligent devices are integrated into the life of people, so that the life of people becomes more convenient and comfortable. Diet is an important component of daily life of people, greatly influences the happiness degree of life of people, but some people do not love cooking, and the main reason is that cooking needs time and complex operation, and although the appearance of automatic catering equipment such as electric cooker, electromagnetic oven, automatic cooker and the like liberates manpower to a certain extent, the middle process of making food still needs participation of people.

Unmanned or automated kitchens are a recently emerging concept, and currently known automated kitchens are mostly workshop-type or open-type, with robotic arms and various rails for manipulating and transporting food materials between the various functional units. The existing automatic kitchen has low integration level and large occupied space, is not suitable for household use, and is not beneficial to guaranteeing the sanitation of food materials and keeping the freshness of the food materials because the food materials are directly conveyed through equipment such as a mechanical arm, a track and the like in the middle process.

Accordingly, there is a need for an improved intelligent kitchen system to address the above-described problems.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention provides a highly integrated intelligent kitchen system and its constituent parts, which do not require human involvement in the intermediate process, in view of the problems existing in the above prior art.

The invention provides a food material pod for an intelligent kitchen system, the food material pod having:

the food processing device comprises a cabin body for accommodating food materials, wherein one end of the cabin body is provided with an opening; and

a food hatch disposed over the opening of the hatch and configured to seal the opening and to be controllably opened and closed;

wherein the food material is only accommodated and transferred by a plurality of said food material compartments throughout the food preparation process, including the preparation process and the cooking process, from entering said intelligent kitchen system to leaving the system.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the opposite ends of the capsule are provided with openings of identical size and shape, said openings being provided with food material hatches configured to seal said openings and to be able to be opened and closed in a controlled manner.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a partition wall is provided in the body of the food compartment, so that the interior space of the body is divided into a plurality of separate subspaces.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the food material pod is configured to be transportable by a transport mechanism of the intelligent kitchen system between the sub-systems of the intelligent kitchen system.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the transport mechanism comprises a robot arm for accessing the food material pod from the respective sub-system of the intelligent kitchen system and fixedly gripping the food material pod during transport.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the sub-system of the intelligent kitchen system comprises:

an access subsystem capable of interacting with the outside through the access subsystem and configured to receive the food compartment containing the pre-treated food and to provide the food compartment containing the cooked food;

a preparation subsystem configured to receive the food material pod from the access subsystem and the freshness subsystem, perform a preparation operation on the food material, and place the food material subjected to the preparation operation into the food material pod;

a fresh-keeping subsystem configured to receive food bins from the access subsystem, the preparation subsystem, and the cooking subsystem and to keep food in the food bins fresh;

a cooking subsystem configured to receive food material from the preparation subsystem and the fresh keeping subsystem, perform a cooking operation on food material in the food material compartment, and place the food material subjected to the cooking operation into the food material compartment,

wherein the food compartment is configured to sealingly engage each of the subsystems.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the fresh-keeping subsystem comprises a fresh-keeping compartment having a plurality of individual compartments capable of accommodating the food compartment, each compartment having an opening, the sides of the food compartment being provided with a fresh-keeping cover configured to sealingly engage with the openings of the compartments when the food compartment is placed in the compartment.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the preparation system comprises one or more preparation tanks, each with two food tank input/output openings, the food tanks being configured to be placed into the preparation tank via any of the food tank input/output openings of the preparation tank by means of the transport mechanism and to be removed from the preparation tank via any of the food tank input/output openings of the preparation tank by means of the transport mechanism.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the food compartment is configured to be fixedly mounted into the preparation compartment, and the opening of the food compartment is configured to be sealingly engageable with the food input and the food output of the preparation space of the preparation compartment, the food compartment cover being configured to be openable and closable by the preparation compartment.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the cooking subsystem comprises one or more cooking chambers, each of which has an opening at both ends, the food chamber being configured to be fixedly mounted to the cooking chamber such that the opening of the food chamber sealingly engages with the opening of the cooking chamber, the food chamber cover being configured to be openable and closable by the cooking chamber.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the cooking subsystem comprises one or more cooking chambers having an opening at one end, the food chamber being configured to be fixedly mounted to the cooking chamber such that the opening of the food chamber sealingly engages the opening of the cooking chamber, the food chamber cover being configured to be opened and closed by the cooking chamber.

The intelligent kitchen system provided by the invention has the advantages of high integration level and small occupied space, and the whole process adopts the closed food cabin as a carrier for circulating food, so that the sanitation and freshness of the food are ensured. In addition, the food material cabin is the only carrier for food material circulation in the food manufacturing process, so that the interface structure and configuration of each functional unit and the food material cabin are convenient to unify, and the integration level of the intelligent kitchen system is higher.

Drawings

For a better understanding of the above and other objects, features, advantages and functions of the present invention, reference should be made to the preferred embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the drawings. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the drawings are intended to schematically illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention, and that the scope of the invention is not limited in any way by the drawings, and that the various components are not drawn to scale.

Fig. 1 is a schematic front view of an intelligent kitchen system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged schematic view of an access subsystem of the intelligent kitchen system of fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a schematic rear view of the intelligent kitchen system of fig. 1.

Fig. 4A is a schematic view of a food material compartment according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4B is a schematic view of a food material compartment according to another preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 5A is a schematic view of a fresh capsule according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 5B is a schematic view of the food compartment shown in fig. 4B placed in a fresh compartment.

Fig. 6 is a schematic view of a preparation tank according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 7 is a schematic view of a cooking chamber according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The intelligent kitchen system (hereinafter referred to as "kitchen system") and the food material compartment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. What has been described herein is merely a preferred embodiment according to the present invention, and other ways of implementing the invention will occur to those skilled in the art on the basis of the preferred embodiment, and are intended to fall within the scope of the invention as well.

Fig. 1 schematically shows a front view of a kitchen system according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, wherein an access subsystem 200 of the kitchen system for storing and retrieving food material pods 100 and two food material pods 100 respectively located at access ports of the access subsystem 200 are partly shown, which may be the same food material pod or may be two separate food material pods. For example, the same food material compartment may be used for holding food materials before processing or after necessary steps such as cleaning, and of course, two food material compartments may be used for holding food materials before processing and food materials after processing, respectively. The term "processing" as used herein may include preparation and cooking operations. The kitchen system of the present invention includes a plurality of food material pods that transfer food material throughout the food preparation process from the entry of food material into the kitchen system to the exit of food material from the kitchen system.

Fig. 2 schematically illustrates an enlarged view of the access subsystem 200 of fig. 1, from which it can be seen that the access subsystem 200 may include a food compartment input port 210 for receiving a food compartment, a food compartment output port 230 for retrieving the food compartment, and a human-machine interaction interface 220 in communication with a control system of the kitchen system. The control system communicates with various subsystems or components of the kitchen system (e.g., access subsystem, fresh keeping subsystem, preparation subsystem, cooking subsystem, and transport mechanism, etc.) to control and operate accordingly. The control system includes a controller including a processing circuit and a memory storing a program that, when executed by the processing circuit, is capable of controlling portions of the kitchen system to process food items to make food. In use, the food compartment 100 containing a particular food material may be placed into the kitchen system through the food compartment input port 210, and then instructions may be issued to the control system of the kitchen system by operating the man-machine interface 220 to control the various portions of the kitchen system to process the food material according to a preset processing rule to produce a desired food. The food preparation program may be pre-stored in the kitchen system, or may be modified or written by the user according to specific needs and preferences, but may also be downloaded or transmitted from a network or other terminal via a communication system.

Fig. 3 schematically shows a back side view of a kitchen system according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. As can be seen, the kitchen system may also include a serving subsystem 300, a cooking subsystem 400, a fresh keeping subsystem 500, etc. in communication with the control system. Wherein the standby food subsystem 300 includes one or more standby food compartments 310 that can be operated simultaneously, for receiving food material from the food material compartments, performing a standby food operation on the food material in the food material compartments, and placing the food material subjected to the standby food operation into the food material compartments. The heads of the preparation functions in each preparation pod 310 may be replaceable to perform different preparation operations. Also schematically shown in fig. 3 are a plurality of serving function heads 320 for replacement. As already explained above, the food material compartment holding the food material that is not subjected to the preparation operation and the food material compartment holding the food material that is subjected to the preparation operation may be the same food material compartment or may be two separate food material compartments. The cooking subsystem 400 includes one or more concurrently operable cooking chambers 410 for receiving the food chamber 100, performing a cooking operation on the prepared food in the food chamber, and placing the cooking operated food in the food chamber. Similarly, the food material compartment for holding food material that has not undergone a cooking operation may be the same food material compartment or may be two separate food material compartments. The fresh keeping subsystem 500 includes a fresh keeping compartment 510 for receiving the food compartment 100 and keeping fresh the food in the food compartment, which may occur at any stage of the overall manufacturing process from the food entering the kitchen system to leaving the kitchen system, for example, the food that has not undergone any operation may be placed in the fresh keeping subsystem 500 for fresh keeping after passing through the food compartment, the food that has undergone the standby operation may be placed in the fresh keeping subsystem 500 first and then subjected to the cooking operation as needed, and similarly, the food that has undergone the cooking operation may be placed in the fresh keeping subsystem 500 first and then transported to the dish outlet 230 of the access subsystem 200 by the transport mechanism at a suitable timing as needed. The preservation includes heat preservation and moisture preservation, wherein the heat preservation refers to temperature maintenance and comprises high temperature maintenance and low temperature maintenance; moisture retention refers to maintaining humidity, including both drying and humidity. It should be noted that the freshness protection subsystem 500 is not required, and the intelligent kitchen system of the present invention may not have the freshness protection subsystem 500.

During the circulation and production of the food material, the food material compartment 100 needs to be transferred between the respective subsystems to process the food material in sequence, and thus the intelligent kitchen system of the present invention further includes a conveying mechanism for conveying the food material compartment between the respective subsystems, which may be a similar mechanism capable of fixedly clamping the food material compartment, such as a robot arm or a manipulator.

The intelligent kitchen system of the present invention may further include a communication system for communicating with the control system, the mobile terminal (e.g., cell phone, computer, etc.), the internet, and the internet of things. A user may remotely control the kitchen system through a mobile terminal, the internet of things, etc., for example, instructing the kitchen system to make desired foods and dishes at a designated time. In addition, the user may also control the kitchen system through the human-machine interaction interface 220.

Fig. 4A schematically shows a food material compartment according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. As shown in the figure, the food material compartment has a compartment body for accommodating food material, and the overall shape of the compartment body may be cylindrical as shown in the figure or may be square or other shapes. The upper part of the hatch is provided with an opening for receiving food material, and the opening is provided with a food material hatch cover which can seal the opening and can be opened and closed under the control of a user or other subsystem of the kitchen system, and the hatch cover can be in sealing fit with the opening. Alternatively, both the upper part and the lower part of the cabin body can be provided with an opening and a cabin cover controlled to be opened and closed, and the shapes and the sizes of the opening and the cabin cover of the upper part and the lower part are identical, so that the food material cabin can be used upside down. Optionally, one or more dividing walls 110 may be provided within the interior of the food compartment, dividing the interior space of the compartment into a plurality of subspaces for accommodating different food materials.

Fig. 4B schematically illustrates a food compartment according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, which differs from the food compartment illustrated in fig. 4A in that the side of the food compartment is provided with a fresh-keeping cover 120 for use with the fresh-keeping compartment of the fresh-keeping subsystem 500, the relevant contents of which will be described in detail below.

Fig. 5A schematically illustrates a fresh capsule 510 according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. As shown, the fresh capsule 510 may have a plurality of independent compartments 511 capable of holding the food items capsule 100, each of which is capable of independently setting fresh parameters, such as temperature and humidity, to facilitate setting different fresh environments for different food items. Of course, the fresh-keeping compartment 510 may be divided into a plurality of fresh-keeping areas, each fresh-keeping area includes a plurality of storage cells, and different fresh-keeping environments may be set in different fresh-keeping areas. As shown in fig. 5A, each storage compartment 511 has an opening for receiving a food compartment, and a fresh-keeping compartment cover (not shown) capable of opening and closing is provided at each opening. When the food compartment 100 is placed into the storage compartment 511 through the opening by the transport mechanism, see fig. 5B, the compartment cover is pushed inwardly by the food compartment, and the fresh cover 120 on the side of the food compartment covers the opening of the fresh compartment storage compartment and is in sealing and heat-insulating engagement therewith to maintain the compartment environment. When the food compartment is removed from the fresh compartment 510 by the transport mechanism, the hatch at the opening of the storage compartment 511 is automatically closed by the elastic means or control mechanism to maintain the in-compartment environment.

Fig. 6 schematically shows a preparation tank 310 according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. As shown, the preparation chamber 310 has two food chamber input/

output ports

311 and 312 for receiving and taking out the food chamber 100, and a preparation function head fitting port 313 for replacing the preparation function head. The food compartment 100 may be placed in and secured to the preparation compartment 310 by means of a transport mechanism through either of the food compartment input/

output ports

311 and 312, while the opening of the food compartment 100 is in sealing engagement with the food input and output ports of the processing space in the preparation compartment. The standby chamber 310 can control opening and closing of the chamber cover of the food chamber 100 according to the standby operation of itself to put the food in the food chamber into the standby chamber for the standby operation, and put the food subjected to the standby operation into the food chamber and then can take out the food chamber through either one of the food chamber input/

output ports

311 and 312 by the conveying mechanism. Typically, different food materials or different dishes require different preparation operations, and thus the preparation function head 320 in the preparation pod of the present invention is replaceable. For example, a serving function head that can perform a desired serving operation may be retrieved from a serving function head storage area by a transport mechanism and installed into serving bay 310 via serving function head assembly port 313, with different serving function heads each having a uniform interface for interfacing with serving bay installation for ease of replacement and installation. The preparation operation which can be executed by the preparation functional head comprises a plurality of operations such as cleaning, cutting, quantifying, thawing, foaming, blanching, steaming and boiling and the like so as to meet different preparation needs. Meanwhile, the cleaning and cooking operations and the like can also be used for self-cleaning of the standby food cabin.

It should be noted that the positions of the food compartment input/

output ports

311 and 312 and the serving function head assembly port 313 shown in fig. 6 are only illustrative, and they may be provided on different sides of the serving compartment 310, for example, above and below, respectively.

Fig. 7 schematically shows a cooking chamber 410 for cooking food items according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, which is fixed in a kitchen system by a rotation mechanism 411 and the cooking temperature inside the chamber can be controlled by a temperature control system. The rotation mechanism 411 has two degrees of rotation freedom so that the cooking chamber 410 fixed thereto can perform rotational movement about two axes A-A and B-B perpendicular to each other to simulate the stir-frying, stirring, etc. actions during cooking. The cooking chamber 410 has an opening at one end and may have openings at both ends, and the food chamber 100 can be fixedly installed to the opening of the cooking chamber such that the opening of the cooking chamber 410 is hermetically matched with the opening of the food chamber, and the cooking chamber 410 can control the opening and closing of the cover of the food chamber according to the cooking operation to put the food in the food chamber into the cooking chamber for the cooking operation and put the food subjected to the cooking operation into the food chamber through the putting of the food.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the inside of the cooking chamber 410 is provided with a stirring vane (not shown in the drawing) which is fixed to the inside of the cooking chamber 410 so as to be rotatable in both forward and reverse directions with the cooking chamber 410. In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the interior of the cooking chamber 410 may be provided with an independent stirring vane configured to be capable of forward and reverse rotation independently of the cooking chamber 410. When the cooking chamber 410 is performing a cooking operation, the stirring vane may be rotated in a forward direction to simulate the actions of stir-frying, stirring, etc. during cooking; when the cooked food or dishes are required to be discharged into the food compartment 100, the stirring vane may be rotated in the reverse direction or reciprocally moved in the forward and reverse directions at a certain frequency to help the food or dishes enter the food compartment, and the cooking compartment 410 may be further rotated on the rotation mechanism 411 to help the food to be discharged during the discharging process of the food.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of functional interfaces or functional pipes may be provided on the cooking chamber 410 for adding seasoning into the cooking chamber 410, cleaning the cooking chamber 410, and performing ventilation functions, etc. Also, in order to facilitate the cleaning of the cooking chamber 410, the intelligent kitchen system of the present invention further includes a cleaning device for cleaning the cooking chamber 410. The cleaning device has an interface for interfacing with the opening of the cooking chamber 410, which may be arranged to be identical to the opening of the food compartment for ease of interfacing. When the cooking chamber 410 needs to be cleaned, the cleaning device can be fixedly mounted to the cooking chamber by a conveyor mechanism, and the interface of the cleaning device can be in sealing engagement with the opening of the cooking chamber. The cleaning device may supply water or other cleaning liquid under high pressure into the cooking chamber to clean the interior of the cooking chamber. Also, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the washing device may have a washing brush head which can be extended into the interior of the cooking chamber for washing the inner wall of the cooking chamber, the washing brush head preferably having a plurality of branch brush heads which can be drawn together and opened so as to extend into the cooking chamber and wash the inner wall of the cooking chamber, and which can be rotated around the central axis to brush the inner wall of the cooking chamber.

The scope of protection of the invention is limited only by the claims. Those skilled in the art, having the benefit of the teachings of this invention, will readily recognize alternative constructions to the disclosed structure as viable alternative embodiments, and the disclosed embodiments may be combined to create new embodiments that fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A food compartment for a smart kitchen system, the food compartment having:

2. The food compartment of claim 1, wherein the compartment body is provided with openings of the same size and shape at opposite ends, each of the openings being provided with a food compartment cover configured to seal the opening and to be controllably opened and closed.

3. A food compartment according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a partition wall is provided in the compartment body of the food compartment, thereby dividing the interior space of the compartment body into a plurality of separate subspaces.

4. The food compartment of claim 1 or 2, wherein the food compartment is configured to be transportable by a transport mechanism of the intelligent kitchen system between the sub-systems of the intelligent kitchen system.

5. The food compartment of claim 4, wherein the transport mechanism includes a robotic arm for accessing the food compartment from each subsystem of the intelligent kitchen system and fixedly gripping the food compartment during transport.

6. The food compartment of claim 4, wherein the intelligent kitchen system subsystem comprises:

7. The food compartment of claim 6, wherein the freshness-retaining subsystem comprises a freshness-retaining compartment having a plurality of individual compartments capable of receiving the food compartment, each compartment having an opening, the sides of the food compartment being provided with a freshness-retaining cover configured to sealingly mate with the openings of the compartments when the food compartment is placed in the compartment.

8. The food compartment of claim 6, wherein the preparation subsystem comprises one or more preparation compartments, each having two food compartment input/output ports, respectively, the food compartment being configured to be placed into the preparation compartment via any of the food compartment input/output ports of the preparation compartment by the transport mechanism and to be removed from the preparation compartment via any of the food compartment input/output ports of the preparation compartment by the transport mechanism.

9. The food compartment of claim 8, wherein the food compartment is configured to be fixedly mounted into the preparation compartment and the opening of the food compartment is configured to sealingly mate with the food input and the food output of the preparation space of the preparation compartment, the food compartment cover being configured to be openable and closable by the preparation compartment.

10. The food compartment of claim 6, wherein the cooking subsystem includes one or more cooking compartments having openings at both ends, the food compartment being configured to be fixedly mounted to the cooking compartment such that the openings of the food compartment sealingly mate with the openings of the cooking compartment, the food compartment cover being configured to be opened and closed by the cooking compartment.

11. The food compartment of claim 6, wherein the cooking subsystem includes one or more cooking compartments having an opening at one end, the food compartment being configured to be fixedly mounted to the cooking compartment such that the opening of the food compartment sealingly engages the opening of the cooking compartment, the food compartment cover being configured to be opened and closed by the cooking compartment.