Controls Engineering & IoT

Chef Robotics, a San Francisco-based food robotics company, has expanded its artificial intelligence-driven automation platform to handle tray assembly for meatpacking. The system can assemble raw, frozen and precooked proteins – including pork loin fillets, chicken breasts, steaks, lamb chops, bratwursts and sausage links – onto trays before packaging. Tray assembly for proteins has been…

PAR and Square this week unveiled AI tools that can do things on operators’ behalf, like run marketing campaigns and draft employee schedules. They’re part of a new wave of AI aimed at supercharging productivity. Here come the AI restaurant agents. This week, two large restaurant tech suppliers, PAR Technology and Square, unveiled AI products…

In an industry where technology innovation is often associated with software platforms, AI-driven personalization and automation, a small restaurant in southern India is making a compelling case that the next frontier of restaurant technology may be as much about physical infrastructure as digital systems. PETTI Restaurant, located in the coastal port city of Tuticorin, represents…

The technology combines Quail’s high‑clarity audio systems with Audivi’s automated AI-powered voice ordering software. Quail Digital and Audivi have formed a global partnership to deliver a Voice AI hardware platform which has been hailed as the ‘future’ for quick service restaurants (QSR) and drive‑thru ordering. The new system, provided free to QSR operators using the…

The company’s units stock dishes and snacks from several well-known national chains. Evolvending has added new automated dining points at Southwest Florida and Charleston international airports, extending its network in the US travel sector. The company’s units stock dishes and snacks from several well-known national chains, including California Pizza Kitchen, White Castle, Wow Bao and…

As spring approaches, building managers need to prepare for more than rising temperatures. At present, a large portion of the U.S. is projected to experience below normal precipitation this summer. “These areas are likely to face serious water-related challenges,” says Klaus Reichardt, CEO and Founder of Waterless Co., Inc. “Agriculture, local water supplies, and even…

Shinkei Systems said the facility would be “a strategic hub for the West Coast seafood industry.” A Southern California “seafood robotics” company announced Wednesday that it has acquired a Washington state facility that will become its first processing plant. Shinkei Systems said that the 16,000-square-foot facility in Tacoma would serve as a “strategic hub” for…

WellSpan Health has launched a robotic dining system at a location in York, Pa. Known as Fresh Take Eatery, the dining system provides patients and employees at WellSpan York Hospital with around-the-clock access to on-demand foodservice. WellSpan views Fresh Take Eatery as a complement to existing dining options, saying that it can produce hundreds of…

Voss Capital, which owns more than 13% of PAR stock, argued that the POS company’s struggling share price does not reflect its true value. The big restaurant tech supplier PAR Technology is facing investor pressure to consider strategic alternatives. In a letter last week to the company’s board, Voss Capital argued that PAR’s stock price…

The fast casual is seeking greater frequency from core guests and further acquisition of new customers. For the first time in 22 years, Wingstop’s same-store sales turned negative. Comps fell 3.3 percent in fiscal 2025 and 5.8 percent in Q4. But the company views this dip as an anomaly, with expectations of flat to low-single-digit…