Patent Application
20240115075
This invention relates to an automated food frying system.
Automating the process of frying chips and other fried foods in commercial kitchens (e.g. fast food or quick service restaurants and dark kitchens frying potato fries, vegetable chips, hash browns, chicken nuggets, chicken wings etc.) is appealing. The conventional, manual process involves a kitchen staff member emptying a bag of frozen fries into a food fryer basket, then taking that basket and lowering it into a deep fat fryer well, and then lifting it out from the fryer well when cooked, and then pouring the cooked fries into a large stainless steel bowl, salting them, and then keeping them under radiant heat lights until they are ready to be scooped into a cartoon to give to the consumer.
Whilst apparently straight forward, the quality of the final fried food can easily be compromised in this manual process: Product quality depends on a number of factors, such as: the amount of product cooked vs the size of fry well; the time spent in the fryer; the temperature of the oil prior to and during the cook; the quality of the oil (in turn dependent on age, skimming/filtering to schedule); the temperature of the product when it enters the hot oil and whether, for frozen food, it has partially defrosted or not; the delay between frying and salting; the amount of seasoning used; the distribution of seasoning over the cooked product; the seasoning and holding environments (especially their temperature and humidity).
For example, if the food fryer basket is over-loaded with frozen fries (also referred to as ‘chips’), then that can lower the temperature of the cooking oil, leading to poor quality chips. If the chips poured into the food fryer basket have thawed slightly, then they will absorb too much oil, leading to poor quality chips. Once cooked, if they are not salted quickly enough, the chips will go soggy. If the cooked chips are held for more than 5 minutes, then they are usually meant to be discarded, but this can be ignored by kitchen staff, who will sometimes batch cook large quantities of chips and hold them for longer than 5 minutes. Also, staff do not always conform to cooking schedules, preferring to batch cook items to reduce the time they spend interacting with the fryer. They also may incorrectly judge the rate fries are being removed to meet orders, resulting in new batches being ready before the chip dump has been emptied, meaning those chips have to be dumped potentially while still viable.
In practice, kitchen staff in fast food kitchens can overload the fryer baskets with fries, either to save time, reduce the number of batches they have to cook, because of an earlier miscalculation of how many chips were required or because they are unable to correctly measure out the amounts. This causes the oil temperature to drop too low, and affects the fry and can also lead to product not being fully immersed in the oil, thus not cooking properly. In addition, kitchen staff cook in large batches: during busy periods staff will preferentially cook a single large batch consisting of multiple baskets of fries concurrently, thus limiting the spread of labour they have to exert. This leads to fries being held past their quality lifetime. Staff may not notice or are not free when fries are supposed to be removed from the fryer, leading to overcooking. After removal from the fryer, staff may not shake the baskets or give them time to drain, leading to oil remaining on the fries. After placing the fries into the dump (a heated food storage area), staff may not salt the fries, may not salt with the correct amount, or may not correctly distribute/mix the salt over the fries. Batches of fries may not be correctly labelled, leaving to confusion over the remaining lifecycle of specific batches. Fries that have passed their lifecycle may not be wasted at the correct time, and may continue to be given to customers. Freezer doors may be left open, causing product to begin to defrost causing fry quality to deteriorate. Staff may not skim the vats or start oil filtration cycles in a timely fashion.
Most commercial kitchens, especially the major well known fast-food chains, have quite specific SOPs (standard operating procedures) that are designed to address these potential problems by defining for example: the maximum batch size (e.g. the maximum weight of frozen produce that can be placed into a hot oil well for frying), the cook or drop temperature (e.g. 175° C.), the maximum hold time for food (i.e. the time the food can be held after cooking before being delivered to the consumer—typically 5 minutes), the frequency of filtering the cooking oil, the maximum customer wait times, as well as other operating rules (e.g. always closing the freezer door as soon as frozen food is removed from the freezer), never letting frozen food defrost in air etc, replacing the cooking oil when it becomes cloudy, specific fryer cleaning procedures etc.
But the reality is that in a busy kitchen, where the job of frying food is often given to the least experienced member of the kitchen team, these SOPs are not infrequently ignored, leading to compromised food quality. And operating the frying equipment is unpopular among workers because it is dirty, smelly, boring/unproductive and repetitive; frequent oil filtering is unpleasant and also requires cumbersome PPE. Even more worryingly, it is also dangerous: 80% of fast food workers have been burnt whilst working, and the majority of burn victims received their burns when operating frying equipment. Churn rate for frying staff is understandably high, and training costs are high; SOP compliance is low, and product quality is low. In summary, fast food frying has several major problems: worker injuries, poor quality control, high labour costs, and limited labour availability.
An implementation of the invention is the Karakuri automated food frying system, called Fryr®. The Fryr system addresses the problems identified earlier and provides new functionality that enhances consumer choice, improves food quality, reduces food wastage and reduces energy consumption. The Fryr system is a complete, self-contained, automated food frying system; it is made up of a freezer section that can automatically dispense measured quantifies of frozen food into a food fryer basket (e.g. a standard food fryer basket), and a transport system for moving the filled food fryer basket into a deep frying well and then to the food dump, where it is held until used. The transport system may be made up of separate linear transport modules that can each move a fryer basket independently of other modules. The invention is defined in the appended Claims.
The Fryr system leads to many advantages: Adherence to standard operating procedures (SOPs) is enhanced, leading to better quality product, with less waste. The Fryr device is able, even whilst operating at high food production rates sufficient to meet the needs of even the busiest kitchen, to:
The following twenty three key Features are implemented in the Karakuri Fryr automated food frying system:
The following figures show features of the Fryr food-fryer system that implements the invention.
This Detailed Description section covers the Fryr® food frying system. The Fryr system automates the dispensing, cooking and dumping into a food hold of a range of fried products. The Fryr system enables:
The automated freezer dispenser 1 delivers (e.g. under gravity or assisted) required amounts of frozen food directly into a fryer basket 4 (see
The transport system 2 includes a mechanism for lowering and raising basket into and from a hot oil well; this mechanism is separate from the basket transport system that moves a fryer basket 4 over to the well.
Each well has its own basket lowering and raising mechanism, so that the system can simultaneously be frying multiple baskets, and can simultaneously be loading a basket with frozen fries at the same time as, for example, one basket is being lowered into a well, and another basket is being lifted up from a well and another basket is queued and waiting to be moved over to a well.
The system includes guarding 6, including glazed panels 7, around the entire unit to minimise the risks of injury and to contain airborne oil droplets and cooking odours within the unit. Whilst the system is fully automated, it does allow kitchen staff to manually slide a basket into the system, through manual basket inlet 23; this basket is then automatically transferred to a fryer unit 9 and then, once its contents has been cooked, is returned to the manual basket outlet 24.
The Fryr system also has an optional add-on Autopacking unit 8, shown in
The Fryr system is designed to be a near drop-in replacement for both existing equipment and labour, supporting all current products and processes. Because the Fryr system is a data enabled device, it can count the actual numbers of portions of food that are cooked (conventional restaurant management systems naturally count the number of portions sold, but configuring the actual food frying system to count the actual numbers of portions cooked and supplied (e.g. not discarded because they were held in the dump for too long) has many advantages: first, since the kitchen will know how many bags of ingredients (e.g. bags of frozen fries) it used over a day, having data on the actual numbers of portions cooked and supplied gives a clear picture on the amount of food wastage (e.g. spillages of frozen food; letting frozen food de-frost and hence become unsuitable for frying; food discarded because it was held in the dump for too long).
The Fryr system can accept input (e.g. an instruction to dispense food from a compartment 10) from both staff in-store and external systems. This allows forecast production rates to be set manually or automatically, and for staff to alter products according to in-store conditions (e.g. when those conditions require a change to the predicted scheduling of food dispensing from the compartments 10). Over time, this can enable experienced staff knowledge (e.g. when to schedule food dispensing from compartments 10) to be learnt by the system.
The data-centric approach used in the Fryr system also enables a Price per Portion model for the supply and maintenance of its Fryr units; this model allows restaurants to benefit from the labour reduction Fryr brings, and in a way that scales with their traditional labour costs, but without the normal capex associated with buying kitchen equipment.
We will look now at each of these subsystems in more detail. First, the food (e.g. frozen food) dispenser 1.
The food dispenser 1 holds frozen product, both for automated and manual dispensing; it enables the dispensing of food in precise, but variable (including dynamically or real-time variable) amounts. It has three main drawer compartments 10 (see
A compartment 10 may have no automatic dispenser and instead allow for storage of low-volume product in bags to be used for manual transfer into baskets. So kitchen staff can manually fill a fryer basket and then move that basket into the manual basket inlet 23; the automated operation then takes over.
We will look now at the fryer basket transport system 2 in more detail.
The basket remains in position for the required frying time, and then fry well lifting transport 20 lifts the basket out of the hot oil. The basket is gripped by gripper 13 and the main linear transport 19 then moves the filled basket until it is over an appropriate food dump; it then deposits the fried food into the dump. It then returns the empty basket to the vertical basket store 21. The empty basket is subsequently collected by the freezer dispenser transport 17 and positioned under a food compartment, and the cycle begins again.
As noted above, there are four separate, independent linear movement devices or modules: (1) a dispenser transport module 17, running underneath the freezer compartments 10; (2) link transport module 18, at the side of the food dispenser; (3) the main linear transport module 19; and (4) well lifting transport module 20 (two for each well).
A number of benefits flow from there being 4 separate movement systems or modules, each performing a simple linear motion: Efficient use of space; increased throughput; cheap, reliable, robust; reduce time criticality on interactions.
Having separate transport modules is advantageous for several reasons.
So, as noted earlier, each well has its own basket lowering and raising mechanism 20, so that the system can simultaneously be frying multiple baskets, and can simultaneously be loading a basket with frozen fries at the same time as, for example, another basket is being lowered into a well using well lift mechanism 20, and another basket is being lifted up from another well, using a different well lift mechanism 20 and another basket is being moved up and away from the frozen food dispenser with vertical link module 18, with several baskets with frozen food queued lower down in the vertical link module 18, and yet another basket is being moved along the main linear transport 19 to position that basket over an empty well A computer is of course used to schedule and synchronise all actions, ensuring that scheduled production of fried food is automatically adhered to, and that all SOPs are also automatically adhered to.
We look now at the Fry or Food Dump 5, shown in
The fry dump 5 supports a large proportion of staff interactions.
The fry dump 5 features four separated lanes for product holding and packing. This allows batch separation to be consistently maintained. As the Fryr system controls the cooking process, accurate information on the age of each batch will also be communicated to staff, to ensure that wasted product is disposed of appropriately. Additionally each lane has separate space for holding packaged product, ready for expedition. The Fryr system will ensure that product is heated while it is being held. The fry dump may use heat lamps to maintain temperature, and also heat from the freezer.
Design Optimisation: The fry dump 5 has been designed to allow maximum flexibility in future iterations, without affecting function. Surface features such as lane separation are made from formed sheet stainless steel. This allows such features as the number, size and shape of lanes to be easily adjusted following feedback.
Output Tracking: Optionally, a vision system can be added to the fry dump 5 to independently track the amount of cooked product available. This closes the data loop and can provide real-time product availability data.
Seasoning: In the UK, product is not seasoned after cooking, however this is not the case in a large number of locales. The Fryr system can include the dispensing technology for automated seasoning modules, and the system is designed to be able to integrate these.
The Fryr system is fully automated and requires no regular human intervention, other than filling the dispensers with frozen food and collecting cooked food from the food dump 5. In addition, it also supports manual Input and Output. The Manual Input 23 and Output 24 points allow the Fryr system to handle product outside of that which is dispensed automatically, whilst retaining the other automation benefits the Fryr system brings such as enforced cook time, and superior environmental hot holding.
As well as bringing support for other products, it also enables the use of baskets outside of those normally used, such as those used for hash browns. As noted earlier, the Fryr device includes a manual basket inlet 23 (see
Autopacker Option
The autopacker option (see
Frame and Guarding
The Fryr device is designed to be a drop-in replacement for existing professional kitchen equipment. As well as fitting into existing footprints, this means ensuring staff can continue to work safely and in close-proximity. Guarding 6 (see
To ease installation the unit is freestanding, and designed to decompose into transportable elements. Fryr's framing has been designed to allow staff to work in close proximity without danger whilst also retaining access to all key parts of the system for cleaning, maintenance, etc. The framing is freestanding, and does not require any specific modifications to kitchens to install. Hinged compartments allow access to all of Fryr's modules, including the fryer. These also allow the fryer to be removed from the system for maintenance. Note that the main controls to the fryer always remain accessible.
Due to the enclosed nature of the frame, there is additional opportunity for extraction to be built into Fryr.
Cleaning and Hygiene
All parts of the Fryr device that are in regular direct contact with food, such as the dispenser hoppers and the fry dump chutes, are removable for ease of cleaning in the standard customer store sinks. All direct and indirect food contact parts and those located in splash zones are hygienic and durable, made from stainless steel and food-grade plastics and are easy to access and wipe clean with a cloth and degreaser. Access underneath the Fryr device is facilitated by the fact the freezer dispenser units and the fryers can be wheeled out of the guarding to allow for cleaning underneath and behind them.
The Basket
The fryer basket 4 is essentially similar or identical to a standard, conventional commercial food fryer basket, with sides and floor made of nickel plated wire mesh. It includes a mounting hook 14 (see
Control Systems
The Fryr system uses Karakuri's developed control systems to orchestrate the automation system. This includes control of internal systems, integration with the installed fryer, and offering API endpoints for integration with external systems.
The Fryr system issues commands to the installed fryer. This allows the Fryr system to issue cook commands, receive cook time estimates, receive alerts etc, while allowing the fryer controller to dynamically adjust cook time, control filtering valves etc. This means that the Fryr system can benefit from the extensive empirical testing performed by fryer manufacturers to generate cook cycle data.
The Fryr system also can be operated completely manually in the event of a system failure—e.g. kitchen staff can manually add frozen food to frier baskets, and manually lower them into the heated wells, and manually lift them back up and out and tip their contents on to the dump.
Production Control
The Fryr system produces product at a dynamic rate, according to different inputs. These inputs can be real-time adjustments from staff in-store via the system's user interface, or API endpoints from external systems.
Where available (depending on locale), the Fryr system's base production rate will be set by the customer's forecasting data. Staff in store will be able to override this base rate via the system's UI, either as a pre-emptive alteration to the forecast, or with immediate effect during service, e.g. if an unexpected large party enters the store. Permission levels for who is able to alter this rate, and to what extent, will be configurable per machine. The Fryr system will collect data on these manual interventions and can use this data to improve forecasts based on the real reactions in-store. This ensures that the knowledge currently held in staff experience is efficiently retained in-store, without having to rely on manual data input by staff. As the input to the Fryr system's production rate is software-driven, new sources can be added. For instance, if a franchisee installs a camera system to support live demand prediction it will be possible to integrate this into the Fryr system without requiring any change to the hardware installation.
Workflows
This section will provide an overview of the workflows required to operate the Fryr system. There are general daily operation and cleaning workflows and also product-specific workflows.
Daily Operations
During daily operation there are two tasks that must be undertaken at regular intervals: refilling the freezer drawers and filtering the oil. Each of these tasks is summarised below.
Refilling freezer drawers: the Fryr system user interface will inform the user that a refill is required
Oil filtering: The system will automatically filter the oil in each well every 16 cook cycles per well if used with a fryer that supports automatic filtering. Regular and effective oil filtering reduces oil waste. This frequency can be adjusted if desired and also varied depending on the product. Observations during the site visits indicated that oil quality degrades faster when cooking chicken nuggets than fries, due to the crumbs that come off the chicken nuggets.
Typical Customer Workflow and Fryr Workflow
The below tables show a comparison between the current workflows for each product and the workflows that the Fryr system will facilitate.
Installation and Initial Setup
The Fryr system is designed as a set of freestanding separate subsystems that can be individually moved into position before being connected together. This enables the system to fit through doorways into kitchens to limit disruption. Once connected together with a fryer, the system can be connected to power (3-phase) and internet (ethernet) and turned on. Installation engineers will make sure the system is aligned on the floor, secured, and also positioned correctly under the extraction system. The system will be commissioned and fully tested with product.
Quality Opportunities and Data Collection
The Fryr system offers a number of opportunities from labour reduction and quality improvement, to enhanced data collection and forecasting.
Quality Improvements
Whether fully or partially-automated, the Fryr system cooks all product completely to the programmed SOP. This includes features such as:
The design of the Fry Dump also allows staff to better manage fry batches and ensures that batch separation and age is clearly communicated. By adhering to SOPs, the Fryr system ensures that fried product is consistently produced to the highest quality possible.
The Fryr system also increases quality via oil care. Where a suitable fryer is installed, the Fryr system will automatically perform filter cycles when required, ensuring that oil remains in good condition. Where a fryer requiring manual filtering intervention is installed, the Fryr system still offers opportunity for increased quality. The Fryr system tracks the oil status of each fry well available (based on factors including time since last filter and product volume cooked) and if it detects that staff are not performing a filter in a timely manner when requested, such as during a busy period, the Fryr system will preferentially use wells with better condition oil where possible, thus maintaining the highest quality output.
Data Collection
As discussed above, the Fryr system will use staff interactions to improve forecasting over time. Alongside this, there are a number of data collection opportunities that will offer insights into parts of the frying process not possible with traditional equipment. By controlling the frying process, the Fryr system allows for much more accurate and granular data to be collected on product availability, and wastage. As the Fryr system controls both the dispense and cooking process for its fully-automated products, accurate data will be collected on both the timing of the cooks and the batch size of each cook. This will allow for accurate recording of the amount of product produced. Combined with the Fryr system's ability to track the output rate of product from the dump, this will enable enhanced data on product availability and wastage.
Cooking Modes
The Fryr system supports several different cooking modes: Cook on demand; cook to order; cook to learned schedule; and cook to a preset product availability quantity.
Cook on Demand: An Operator:
Cook to order: Here, it is an order for a food item that initiates a cook cycle for that food item. Orders can be aggregated into batches at the cost of delay. This mode minimises wastage at the expense of order fulfilment latency.
Cook to a learned schedule: A production schedule is determined a-priori based on learned information about customer behaviour, including variable environmental factors such as the weather, finish time of local football match, automatically determined measures of restaurant busyness anticipating order requests etc. See also the following ‘Optimised cook schedules’ section.
Cook to product availability quantity: the Fryr system supports a hot hold area that stores cooked product. The amount of product in this area is the ‘buffer’ between the cooked batches and the individual portions being served and is the ‘available product’.
When the restaurant is not busy, to minimise waste, the amount of available cooked product in the buffer should be minimised due to its short shelf life (in the case of chips this can be as low as 5 minutes). In this scenario, waste is minimised with zero cooked product in the buffer, equivalent to the ‘cook to order’ mode.
At busy times the amount of available product needs to be high to minimise waiting times and maximise the restaurants throughput. Waste is not an issue in this condition, everything will be sold.
At transition times, the optimal size of the product buffer is determined from the current order frequency measured over a time period similar to the cooking time. In practice this may be low pass filtered to provide a smoother signal and potentially coupled with a look ahead calculation based on the rate of change of order frequency so that the buffer demand responds quickly to a rapid increase in the order frequency.
In this control mode, the production rate is closed loop controlled to maintain the current demanded buffer size as the buffer is depleted by order fulfilment. So for example, the buffer size, or available product amount, could be five portions of fries—e.g. the system tracks how many portions of fries are ordered, and cooks at a production rate sufficient to ensure that there will be approximately five portions of fries in the food dump over a set future time window (typically the cooking duration for that food item—e.g. 3 minutes for fries). This approach has the advantage that waste is minimised at quiet times and production automatically increases and decreases with demand whilst always maintaining enough cooked product for serving customers without excessive delay.
This control method requires no AI or machine learning systems, complex prediction systems or manual intervention and only requires integration with the Point of Sale system to provide the order information. It ensures quality fried product is always available for customers, minimising wait times whilst also minimising waste.
Additionally, manual overrides can be provided to rapidly fill the buffer or empty it or simply set the desired level. This is much like manual control of the production rate but has the advantage of stability with respect to the buffer size.
Optimised Cook Schedules
The optimised cook schedules implemented by the Fryr system are generated by a state of the art Genetic Algorithm (GA) which is a class of computational model that applies evolutionary theories to solve complex optimisation problems. The inputs to the GA are the Fryer Transactions, SOPs and the physical limitations of the frying process (well configuration, oil management etc).
The GA takes these inputs, generates candidate cook schedules and scores these schedules based on how many fried product orders are met and how much waste for each product is generated. The best candidates are then selected and mutations (e.g. adjusting batch size or cook start time) are applied to each to generate a new set of candidate schedules taking features from the best. This process is repeated until an optimised cook schedule is found. In this way we were able to generate cook schedules which fulfilled orders strictly within SOP, took into account all the physical limitations of the frying process (well configuration, oil management etc) whilst also minimising waste. A Genetic Algorithm is selected due to the inherent nonlinearity of the problem, that is, optimising cook schedules for multiple fried products with different physical constraints (cook times, hold times, batch sizes).
The requirements that the Fryr system meets can be summarised as follows:
Other Food Frying System Variants
Fryer basket 4 runs on a single transport rail 25 that moves the filled fryer basket 4 away from the dispenser 1, and over the frying wells. Vertical transports 28 lower the fryer basket 4 into the oil, and raise it from the oil after a set time; these vertical transports 28 operate independently and asynchronously compared to the single rail 25 transport system. Single rail 25 transport system moves the basket 4 after cooking to a seasoner unit 26; it then tips the fried food into the seasoner unit 26, which then agitates, dehumidifies and seasons the food. It releases the seasoned food through food outlet 27.
The seasoner unit 26 is configured for the automated dispensing of seasoning of a user-specified type, and user specified amount. It can automatically agitate the food product without damaging it and can demonstrably extend the quality lifetime of fried product. It can automatically dispense product into containers and can automatically bin or dispose of product that is past its lifetime.
The advantage of this small, modular approach, compared to the larger design, is that it can fit more readily into existing workflows/layouts; existing kitchens are constrained in space and this solution can more readily work within the floorplan of existing elements and not require people to working around the hardware. In particular, the rail system can be shaped to conform to the path available between the modules.
Key Features
In the following sections, we will focus on the specific Features A-W listed above. Each Feature can be combined with any other Feature; each optional feature defined below can be combined with any Feature and any other optional feature.
Other aspects are a meal prepared using the device or system defined in any Feature A-S and any related optional feature(s), as well as a restaurant, kitchen or dark kitchen including the device or system defined in any Feature A-W and any related optional feature(s).
Features A-D: Automated Food Fryer Basket Transport System
We outlined earlier how the Fryr automated food frying system includes an automated basket transport system made up of separate, independent linear movement devices or modules: specifically (see
Then, after the food is deposited into the dump, the main transport module 19 returns the empty basket to the link transport module 18, which lowers the empty basket back down to transfer the basket to the dispenser transport module 17, which (when required) then moves the empty basket under the food dispenser, so that the cycle can begin again.
As noted earlier, a number of benefits flow from there being separate movement systems or modules, each performing a simple, linear motion: Having separate transport modules is advantageous for several reasons.
So the Fryr system can simultaneously be frying food in multiple baskets, and can simultaneously be loading a basket with frozen fries at the same time as, for example, another basket is being lowered into a well using well lift mechanism 20, and another basket is being lifted up from another well, using a different well lift mechanism 20 and yet another basket is being moved up and away from the frozen food dispenser by link module 18, and yet another basket is being moved along the main transport 19 to position that basket over an empty well. A computer is of course used to schedule and synchronise all actions, ensuring that scheduled production of fried food is automatically adhered to, and that all SOPs are also automatically adhered to.
We can Generalise to:
Optional Features
We can also generalise to:
Optional Features (Each is Applicable to all Features)
The Dispenser Transport Module
The Link Transport Module
The Main Transport Module
The Well Transport Module
Independent Module Operation
Movement
The Basket
The Dispenser
The Food Dump
Air Extraction
Hybrid Operation
Software Control
Cooking Modes
Personalisation
Modularity
Autopacking System
Data Connected System
SOP Compliance
Feature E: Automated Salter/Seasoner
The Fryr automated food frying system can automatically salt and/or season fried food, such as fries or chips. It includes an automated salter/seasoner unit positioned next to the fryer; an automated fried food basket transport lifts the fried food basket up from the fryer and tips the fried food into the salter/seasoner unit; the salter/seasoner unit then automatically agitates the food, ensures that the humidity inside the unit is controlled, automatically adds salt/seasoning to the food and then automatically dispenses the required portions. The Fryr automated food frying system enables automated personalisation of a food portion; a diner or customer can now order a required size (e.g. small fries, medium fries or large fries) and also specify the salt amount (e.g. fries with no salt, regular salt, extra salt) and also specify the seasoning type and amount (e.g. fries with regular fry seasoning, fries with extra dried onion seasoning etc.).
We can Generalise as Follows:
An automated salter/seasoner device configured to hold, season and dispense fried food, such as fries or chips; the device including:
Optional Features:
Fried Food Holding Container
Agitator
Environment Conditioning System
Salter or Seasoning System
Fried Food Dispenser
Context
Feature F: Food Delivery App Integration
The Karakuri automated food frying system automates the entire process of fried food handling, from an initial order from a consumer food delivery app to producing the ordered portions of food, e.g. ready for collection. This ensures the freshest possible food. An order into a food delivery app is sent to the automated food-fryer system, which then determines how best to service that order to meet the applicable standard operating procedure rules, including the time from food being placed into the food dump to it being collected. There are essentially two scenarios: first, the system determines that a fresh batch of food should be cooked, and it then triggers the food dispenser to release food into a basket; the entire sequence is as described in Feature A-D. Secondly, the system identifies a batch of food that is already being processed (e.g. being moved from the dispenser, or in a cooking well, or in the food dump) and associate that batch with the new order.
We can Generalise to:
A food preparation system configured to receive an order from a food delivery app, and to automatically determine how to service that order to meet applicable standard operating procedure rules, including selecting from the following options: (a) to instruct an automated food-fryer system to prepare a new batch of food to meet the order; (b) to identify a batch of food currently being processed in the automated food-fryer system and to associate that batch with the order.
Optional Features
Feature G: Chip Frying System with User-Defined Chip Crispness
Currently, fried products are cooked in a uniform manner across batches. This is due to the disconnect between batches and orders i.e. a specific batch of product is not linked to a specific order, but is cooked and dumped on a generic basis. The Fryr automated food frying system automates the entire process of fried food handling, from an initial order for e.g. a portion of fries from a consumer food delivery app, down to the final salting and seasoning of that portion of fries. By enabling fryers to cook smaller batches more frequently, e.g. to customer order, the Fryr system enables product to be cooked to a specific level specified by the customer. By varying oil temperature and/or time, product could be produced with varying ranges of crispness, etc.
Because the system can vary the cooking time and oil temperature for each individual basket placed in the fryer, consumers can now specify how crisp they would like their fries; for example, frozen chips fried at 350 F for 5 minutes will be crispier and browner than chips fried for 3 minutes at the same temperature, or a lower temperature. Whilst diners have for years been able to have their meat cooked to their preference (e.g. rare, medium-rare etc.), the Karakuri automated food frying system now enables the same degree of control and customisation for chips, e.g. on a portion by portion basis. Also, the system can also automatically double (or triple) cook fries (to order or as the standard technique); this involves frying once at below 350 F (to soften the potato), and then a second (or third) fry at 350 to get a crispy exterior.
We can Generalise to:
An automated chip-fryer system including a chip-fryer basket transport system that is configured to move a food-fryer basket (i) down into a deep fat fryer that fries one or more portions of chips in the basket for a pre-set cooking time at a pre-set cooking temperature; (ii) up from the deep fat fryer when that pre-set time has elapsed; in which the system includes an interface that controls the pre-set cooking time and/or pre-set cooking temperature;
Optional Features
Feature H: Predictive Setting of Oil Temperature in a Deep Fat Fryer, Depending on Anticipated Future Usage
In conventional food frying systems, a thermometer measures the temperature of the cooking oil in the deep fat fryer and aims to keep that oil at an optimal deep frying temperature of about 180 C or 350 F when cooking food; a simple thermostat system is used, so that if the temperature of the cooking oil drops significantly below 350 F, then the power to the heating element (if an electrical heating system is used) or the volume of gas (if gas burners are used) is increased until 350 F operating temperature is reached.
When frozen food is lowered into a deep fat fryer with oil at 350 F, the temperature of the oil drops, and the thermostat turns up the gas burners or power to the heating element until the oil is back at 350 F. But this can take 30 seconds or more, and during that time, the food is being cooked at a sub-optimal temperature and as a result, can be soggy as excessive oil has been absorbed; when restaurants are very busy and cooking a lot of frozen fried food, the quality of the fried food can hence be quite poor. Most deep fat fryers are calibrated to recognise a minimum 20 F change in the oil temperature, but not smaller temperature changes, so further increasing the time for the system to react. Some systems attempt to compensate for lower cooking temperatures by extending the cooking time, but the results are still poor since the food will still have absorbed excessive oil during the time the oil was below the optimal cooking temperature at which a crisp outer coating forms (as driven by the Maillard reaction).
Conversely, when restaurants are very quiet, a lot of energy can be wasted by keeping the cooking oil at 350 F; sometimes, restaurants will manually lower the temperature of the deep fat fryers during quiet periods, but it can take several minutes to raise the temperature back up to 350 F and so customers during those quiet periods can have to wait longer than normal, or else have food that was cooked (at least initially) in oil that was under-temperature, with poor quality results.
The Karakuri automated food frying system can raise the cooking oil temperature above the normal cooking temperature. It can raise the cooking oil temperature above the normal cooking temperature automatically, for example, because it knows when frozen food is about to be placed into the oil since data from the frozen food dispenser can be used to control the deep fat fryer thermostat: when the frozen food dispenser delivers weight Xg of frozen food into the automated deep fat fryer basket, then a control system increases the thermostat temperature so that, given that weight Xg of frozen food, and the thermal mass of the oil, the oil temperature will drop to the normal cooking temperature within a short time period when the basket with that frozen food is lowered into the oil (i.e. not so long that the food can burn or over-cook).
The Karakuri system can raise the cooking oil temperature above the normal cooking temperature automatically if it is connected to food or meal ordering software—e.g., the software that a waiter, server or customer enters a food or meal order into, or a meal delivery app that the remote customer enters a food or meal order into. Once the order is received, the Karakuri system not only starts preparing the meal, but also advance heats the oil in the deep fat fryer; the extent of heating can be a function of one or more of: the quantity of the food to be cooked, the type of food to be cooked, its thermal mass, the thermal mass of the cooking oil and its frozen or chilled temperature.
There are other circumstances where the Karakuri automated food frying system can automatically raise the cooking oil temperature above the normal cooking temperature: for instance, at certain times in the evening (e.g. when pubs close), the system can be set to automatically raise the cooking oil temperature, in anticipation of a large number of orders.
It can also do this manually—for example, the system could include a button or other control, that when manually pressed or selected, boosts the temperature of the oil above the normal 350 F; a cook can then press or select the control when he or she becomes aware that say one basket of chilled or frozen food will shortly be placed into the deep fat fryer.
Advanced or pre-emptive excess or additional heating of the cooking oil enhances the quality of the fried food because it reduces the risk of frozen or chilled food dropped into the cooking oil lowering the temperature of the cooking oil so that the outer surface of the food absorbs oil instead of sealing and cooking. This approach reduces the chance of over/undercooking, and enables a more predictable and uniform cooking time.
Another advantage is that the additional power (e.g. gas or electric) needed for advanced or pre-emptive heating can be less than the additional power needed in a conventional system; in the conventional system, if the oil temperature drops to say 250 F when a large quantity of frozen food is placed in the oil, then very high capacity gas burners or a very high capacity electrical heating element is needed, since it is critical to get the temperature of the oil back up to 350 F as quickly as possible. But in the Karakuri system, less powerful gas burners or electrical heating elements are needed, since there is no longer any need to intensely heat the oil back up to 350 F.
Since the Karakuri system knows if no frozen food is being dispensed for deep fat frying, and/or that no fried food has been ordered by a consumer or waiting staff, it can also automatically lower the cooking oil temperature below the normal cooking temperature, e.g. to an idle mode temperature. It can do so not only if no cooking of frozen or chilled food has been scheduled, but also during generally quiet times (which can be manually input into the system, or learnt by the system over time).
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system configured to deep fry food at an optimal or desired temperature, and configured to automatically raise the temperature of cooking oil above the optimal or desired cooking temperature prior to frozen or chilled food being deposited into the cooking oil.
Optional Features
Feature I: Maintaining Oil Temperature in a Deep Fat Fryer, by Varying Heat Input Depending on Food Batch Size
In Feature E above, we have seen how the Karakuri system can pre-emptively heat the oil to above the target cooking temperature by an amount that depends on a predicted or expected weight or quantity of frozen or chilled food that is to be cooked in the oil. One generalisation of this is for the Karakuri system to heat the oil to a temperature that depends on a predicted or expected weight or quantity of frozen or chilled food that is to be cooked, and for that temperature not to be above an target cooking temperature. For example, when cooking small batches of frozen food, it may be appropriate to heat the oil to just the normal cooking temperature prior to the frozen food; for larger batches, it may be appropriate to heat the oil to the same normal cooking temperature, but to then increase the heat supplied (e.g. turn up the gas burners) when the food is lowered into the deep fryer to maintain that oil temperature.
So, Feature E covers pre-emptively heating the oil to higher than the target cooking temperature before the food is lowered into the fryer, and this Feature F covers heating the oil to the target cooking temperature before the food is lowered into the fryer, and then increasing the heat applied to the fryer as the food is added in order to maintain that target cooking temperature. The amount of extra heat may depend on the amount of food being fried; the Karakuri system knows the amount and weight (and thermal mass) of the food being dispensed into the basket that will be moved across and lowered into the fryer and uses this data to determine the appropriate amount of extra heat needed to maintain the oil at the desired temperature (i.e. within a specific margin of error, perhaps 5 degrees C.)
This approach reduces the chance of over/undercooking, and enables a more predictable and uniform cooking time.
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system configured to deep fry food at an optimal or desired temperature, and configured to raise the heat or energy supplied to the food-fryer when frozen or chilled food is deposited into the cooking oil by an amount automatically calculated to maintain the temperature of cooking oil at the optimal or desired cooking temperature as the frozen or chilled food is added into the cooking oil.
Optional Features
Feature J: Automated Start and End of Fryer Idle Mode Based on Scheduling of Next Food Order
In order to reduce energy usage and increase oil lifetime (by holding the oil at a more optimal temperature), some conventional food fryers enter an idle mode after a specified period of time, during specified time periods, or from manual input via a button. In idle mode, the fryer holds the oil at a temperature lower than the cooking temperature.
By utilising knowledge of when batches of product are about to be cooked, the Karakuri system automatically enters idle mode earlier, based on the finish cooking time of the current batch in the fryer, and the start time cooking time for the next batch of food. For example, it may be that starting idle mode 20 seconds before the end of the cooking time for a basket of fries has no impact on the quality of the fries; if no further batches of food are scheduled for imminent frying, it may make sense to enter idle model 20 seconds earlier (or some other time found through experimentation to be appropriate; this time will likely vary with the type of food been fried and the quantity of food being fried). This can save considerable amounts of energy over the course of a normal day.
Increasing throughput is then possible, by removing the waiting time otherwise required to allow the fryer to heat from its idle temperature to its cooking temperature (which can occur during dispensing of the frozen product), and reducing the time product may spend thawing before being put into the fryer.
Further, fryers have a limited capacity rate for inputting heat into the oil; it can take 30 seconds or more to heat the oil from idle mode to the desired operating temperature. Because the Karakuri system knows if and when the next order of food has been accepted (e.g. at a restaurant POS or ordering system) or is actually being dispensed (e.g. from the frozen fries dispenser) it knows when, ideally, the oil needs to reach operating temp from idle mode and can hence start heating the oil from idle mode in advance of the frozen food reaching the food fryer.
For example, the fryer could also end idle mode and to begin preheating the oil as soon as the request for chips is placed. Alternatively, if it takes 30 seconds to heat the oil from idle mode temperature to the desired target temperature, and it takes the Karakuri system 45 seconds from starting to dispense a portion of frozen fries into a food basket, and to move that food basket from the dispenser to the food fryer and to start lowering the food basket into the fryer, then the Karakuri system takes the food fryer out of idle mode 15 seconds after the frozen fries start to be dispensed. This enables more frequent use of idle mode, without exceeding the heating capacity rate of the fryer or frying food in below temperature oil. Increasing throughput is then possible, by removing the waiting time otherwise required to allow the fryer to heat from its idle temperature to its cooking temperature (which can occur during dispensing of the frozen product), and reducing the time product may spend thawing before being put into the fryer.
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system configured to deep fry food in an optimal or desired temperature cooking mode, and to have an energy conserving idle mode;
Optional Features
Feature K: Automated Triggering of Oil Filtering Based on Fryer Throughput
In conventional food fryers, the oil is occasionally filtered to remove impurities: this is done manually and is often miss-timed and performed too late to protect the oil. In the Karakuri system, the oil is automatically and regularly filtered; the timing of this filtration is based on the throughput (e.g. one or more of: weight of food cooked; number of cooking cycles; type of food cooked; type of oil used; whether the oil was ever heated to an excess temperature; temperature profile of the oil—in essence, any variable that the system records and could also affect the quality of the oil and hence whether it needs to be filtered or not). This increases oil life and reduces oil waste.
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system configured to deep fry food in oil and to automatically filter the oil;
Optional Features
Feature L: Computer Vision System to Identify Floating Debris in the Fryer Oil
During the frying process, there is a build-up of floating crumbs and other debris which eventually burn and spoil the taste of the oil. This debris is normally just manually skimmed from the top of the oil. In the Karakuri system, there is a computer vision system which observes the debris content; the computer vision system includes an AI engine trained to interpret the images and assess whether the level of debris is sufficient to trigger an alert; the alert can be a signal for a manual skim, or it can initiate an automated system for skimming and disposing of the debris.
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system configured to deep fry food in oil; in which the system includes a computer vision system generating images of the oil and an AI engine trained to interpret the images and to assess whether the level of any debris in the oil is sufficient to trigger an alert.
Optional Features
Feature M: Automated Control of Different Wells in a Multi-Well Fryer Based on Incoming Food Orders
With a conventional multi-well fryer, it is normal to operate all wells at the same time. The Karakuri system is capable of automatically determining the fryer throughput capacity required, based on the number of orders being received or predicted, and hence can automatically determine how many wells to heat. It is possible to make significant energy savings and extend oil life by only operating the wells that are required at the time. Depending on the predicted throughput of food to fry, some or all of the wells can be turned completely off, or heated to an idle mode temperature, or heated to normal operational temperature.
We can Generalise to:
An automated multi-well food-fryer system configured to deep fry food in oil; in which the system is configured to automatically control how many wells are heated depending on the predicted throughput of food to be fried.
Optional Features
Feature N: An Automated Food Fryer System for Agitating Frying Baskets to Separate Fries from Each Other when Immersed in Oil to Ensure they are Evenly Cooked.
Conventional food fryer systems have to be regularly manually shaken by an operator to separate fried food to stop them sticking together and cooking unevenly. But in a busy kitchen, this can easily get overlooked. The Karakuri system includes an automatic basket shaker mechanism that shakes the basket at pre-set time intervals, or at time intervals that depends on the amount of food in the basket (a very full basket will be shaken more frequently than a nearly empty basket).
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system configured to deep fry food in oil; in which the system includes (i) a food-fryer basket; (ii) a device configured to automatically lower the basket into an oil well in the deep fat fryer and to raise it up from the fryer; and (iii) a device configured to automatically agitate the basket whilst it is lowered in the oil well.
Optional Features
Feature O: An Automated Food Fryer System to Rapidly Remove Excess Oil Through from Fried Food Following Removal from the Fryer
In a conventional food fryer system, when a basket with fried food is lifted up from the heated oil, it is vigorously shaken by an operator to rapidly remove excess hot oil. But this is process inconsistent and in a busy kitchen, can be overlooked. The Karakuri system includes an automatic basket shaker mechanism that shakes the basket after it has been lifted up from the hot oil.
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system configured to deep fry food in oil; in which the system includes (i) a food-fryer basket; (ii) a device configured to automatically lower the basket into an oil well in the deep fat fryer and to raise it up from the fryer; and (iii) a device configured to automatically agitate the basket after is has been raised up from the oil well.
Optional Features
Feature P: Automated Food Fryer System with Automatic Fryer Well Covers
One of the main drivers of power consumption in deep fat frying are the heat losses (e.g. convective; radiative) from the hot oil to the atmosphere. The Karakuri food fryer system covers the ‘open’ basket fryer with a thermally insulated cover containing a door (or an airlock) through which the basket or frozen food travels. This allows the air above the fry wells to be contained, thereby breaking the convection cycle to the kitchen atmosphere. This has the benefits of reducing convective losses to the atmosphere, reducing the energy consumption of the fryer and also reducing the need for air extraction power, further increasing the energy savings.
A cover also has the benefit of reducing the potential for human contact with hot oil and hence improving safety and the working environment around the fryer. The cover is openable to enable manual override during operation, cleaning and maintenance of the system. The energy saving and safety benefits of such a covered system are only realisable if all the elements of the frying process are automated, effectively by implementing many of the features described in this document, thereby enabling the cover to remain closed during normal food frying operation.
An additional benefit of being able to control the air above the fry wells is to maintain a temperature and humidity controlled consistent sealed air path from the end of the frying process through to the seasoner and to the final dispenser. This improves the quality of food and extending its hold time by removing an uncontrolled cooling/heating cycle that occurs in a conventional process as the fries are removed from the fryer in an open, uncontrolled, cool, potentially humid atmosphere before seasoning and holding.
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system with one or more wells configured to contain heated oil for deep frying food, in which the system is configured with a cover system to automatically close over one or more of the wells during normal frying operation to reduce heat loss from the heated oil and to automatically open when access to a well is required.
Optional Features
Feature Q: Automated Portion Packaging System
The Fryr system includes an automated packaging system that takes freshly cooked food, e.g. from the food dump, and automatically packages the food into single portions (e.g. in cardboard or paper) e.g. for food delivery services. The automated packaging system tracks the number of portions packaged, when they were produced and other related data (e.g. an order number uniquely identifying each portion, when the order was placed, how long it took to complete the order, when the order was collected). The automated packaging system can include the seasoning unit described in Feature B. The portioning compartment and storage area for packed product is heated. This means that a hot chain from fry well through to packing and holding can be guaranteed, for the best possible quality.
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system that is configured to fry batches of food, in which the system includes a packaging system that automatically packages cooked food into individual portions, each in individual containers or papers.
Optional Features
Feature R: Modular Food Fryer System
The Fryr system is made up of separate modules that each fit into a large casing. There are two main modules:
The main linear transport 19 and the fry well lifting transport 20 remain in the main body of the Fryr system.
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system that includes (a) a food dispenser and a dispenser transport module, for moving fryer baskets to and from the food dispenser, that together form a single unit that is removeable from the food-fryer system for maintenance and repair; and also includes (b) a cooking unit, including frying wells, and a well transport module for moving baskets into the wells, that together form a single unit that is removeable from the food-fryer system for maintenance and repair.
Optional Features
Feature S: Hybrid Automated and Manual Food Fryer System
The Fryr device is fully automated and requires no regular human intervention, other than filling the dispensers with frozen food and collecting cooked food from the food dump 5. In addition, as noted earlier, it also enables kitchens staff to manually insert a basket (e.g. with food not available from the food dispenser, e.g. frozen or other food not stored in the automatic food dispenser 1) into the system and for the system to then cook the food correctly. This also enables the use of baskets that differ from the standard chip fryer basket, which is essentially an empty, nickel-plated wire mesh container: for example, the fryer baskets for hash browns and tacos usually have multiple internal rows of mesh, to better support the hash browns and tacos and ensure even cooking.
As described earlier, the Fryr device includes a manual basket inlet 23 (see
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system that includes an automated basket transport system configured to automatically move a fryer basket from under a food dispenser and into a frying well without any human operator interaction, and further includes (a) a manually operated or accessed inlet or opening configured to enable a human operator to manually move a basket into and out of any unused wells and (b) a manually operated or accessed inlet or opening configured to enable a human operator to manually move a basket so that it engages with the automated basket transport system.
Optional Features
Feature T: Automated Food Fryer System with Operations Scheduled Using a Genetic Algorithm
The Fryr automated food-fryer system cooks food automatically, following optimised cook schedules that have been generated by a Genetic Algorithm (GA). The inputs to the GA are the Fryer Transactions (e.g. timed data tracking all events in the system), SOPs and the physical limitations of the frying process (e.g. well configuration, oil management etc). The GA takes these inputs, generates candidate cook schedules and scores these schedules based on how many fried product orders are met and how much waste for each product is generated. The best candidates are then selected and mutations (e.g. adjusting batch size or cook start time) are applied to each to generate a new set of candidate schedules taking features from the best. This process is repeated until an optimised cook schedule is found.
In this way we are able to generate cook schedules which fulfil orders strictly within SOP, and take into account all the physical limitations of the frying process (well configuration, oil management etc) whilst also minimising waste. We use a Genetic Algorithm due to the inherent nonlinearity of the problem, that is, optimising cook schedules for multiple fried products with different physical constraints (cook times, hold times, batch sizes).
We can Generalise to:
Optional Features
Feature U: Automated Food Fryer System that Tracks Counts the Number of Portions Delivered
The Fryr system is a data connected system in which all operations are tracked and timed. This data is used, for example, to understand wastage levels and to enable a cross-check between the numbers of portions of different types of food actually sold (e.g. tracked by the restaurant sales software) and the number of portions of those foods actually made and also the number of portions of those foods actually packaged up or plated into portions for a consumer. Discrepancies can indicate food wastage, fraud, or system failures.
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system including a portion counting system configured to (i) count the number of portions of different types of food ordered, (ii) count the number of portions of those different types of foods actually packaged up or plated into individual portions for a consumer.
Optional Features
Feature V: Automated Food Fryer System that Tracks and Times Operations to Enable Compliance with SOPs to be Verified
The Fryr system is a data connected system in which all operations are tracked and timed. For instance, every incoming order (e.g. from a restaurant POS system, or consumer food delivery app) to the system is tracked and timed; the time and amount of frozen food dispensed from the freezer is tracked and timed; the operation of the transport system in moving the food fryer basket to the frying wells is tracked and timed; the duration of frying time is tracked and timed; the operation of the transport system in moving the food fryer basket up from the frying well and to the holding area is tracked and timed; the time that a batch of food from a specific fryer basket is kept in the holding area is tracked and timed; the time at which each individual portion of food from that batch is packaged or plated, or discarded if out of time, is tracked and timed; the time at which each individual portion of food is collected is tracked and timed. This data richness is used in the automated assessment of compliance with SOPs, and where non-compliance is identified, that leads to changes in food handling processes to improve SOP compliance, leading to better quality product, with less waste.
The Fryr device is able to operate in a SOP compliant way, and to track all parameters that enable compliance to be verified.
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system configured to automatically record how it performs multiple different types of actions for which standard operating procedure (SOP) rules apply, to enable automated verification of compliance and automated tracking of non-compliance.
Optional Features
Feature W: Automated Food Fryer System with ‘Buffer Quantity’ Cooking Mode
Setting the production rate of an automated food fryer system can be done in various ways; in the Fryr system, there are multiple different cooking modes, including: Cook on demand; cook to order; cook to learned schedule; and cook to product availability quantity (or buffer quantity). In this feature, we will focus on the final mode; it allows the kitchen staff or a remote manager to set the target ‘buffer’ quantity of food held in the food dump at any time. For example, for fries, the buffer quantity could be set at 10 portions of fries—i.e. the Fryr system will automatically alter the production rate to maintain approximately 10 portions of fries in the food dump at that time. The actual quantity can be less or more: it is set to be sufficiently high that customers can be quickly served—i.e. the food dump keeps enough fresh (i.e. not time expired) fries so that customers can be served from the dump and do not have to wait for fresh fries to be cooked. But the quantity is not so high that too many fries in the dump time expire and have to be discarded. The quantity can be derived automatically from the restaurant management system that tracks food orders.
It is also possible to rely on kitchen staff assessing the quantity in the dump when they take food out of it: they can control a simple dial or other input signal on the food-fryer system to either increase or decrease or maintain the production rate. So if, to the kitchen staff, it looks like the number of portions of fries held in the dump as a buffer is significantly below the target, say 10 portions, then they can adjust up the production rate. Equally, if they see a large party arrive in the restaurant, then they can adjust up the production rate temporarily to maximum. Conversely, at quiet time that are likely to persist for a time, then they can adjust the production rate down to minimise wasted fries. This gives a simple, robust and easy to understand approach to adjusting the production rate: the kitchen staff simply have to monitor the quantity of fries in the dump and to adjust the settings to keep this, more or less, at a set level.
We can Generalise to:
An automated food-fryer system configured to automatically cook batches of food at a production rate calculated to be sufficient to provide a pre-set amount of cooked product available in a food dump (the ‘buffer quantity’).
Optional Features:
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2103943.3 | Mar 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107058.6 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107062.8 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107064.4 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107067.7 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107069.3 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107070.1 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107071.9 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107073.5 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107074.3 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107076.8 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107078.4 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107079.2 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| 2107080.0 | May 2021 | GB | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/GB2022/050709 | 3/21/2022 | WO |
