The feature image for the project Food and Beverage Robot.
The feature image for the project Food and Beverage Robot.
The feature image for the project Food and Beverage Robot.
The feature image for the project Food and Beverage Robot.

CLUB PROJECT | 2022

Food and Beverage Robot

A robotics system that automates burger assembly end-to-end — customers pick their ingredients via a mobile app, and a network of Arduino-controlled stations guided by a robotic arm builds the burger without any human intervention.

Arduino
Raspberry Pi
I2C Protocol
Stepper & Servo Motors

OVERVIEW

Built for Taylor's Robotics Club Engineering Fair 2022, this project automates the full burger assembly pipeline. Customers customise their burger through a mobile app (up to 5 ingredients), which sends the order to a Raspberry Pi coordinator. The Pi then orchestrates 6 dedicated stations — bun, patty, two sauce dispensers, and two salad dispensers — each driven by its own Arduino over I2C. A laser-cut robotic arm handles the physical assembly. The system was designed to reduce human contact in food handling, cut waiting time, and lower operational costs for SMEs.

IMPLEMENTATION

TECH STACK

Microcontroller

Arduino Uno (per station), Raspberry Pi (central coordinator)

Communication

I2C (inter-Arduino), Serial (RPi ↔ Arduino)

Actuation

28BYJ-48 Stepper Motor, SG90 Servo Motor, NEMA Stepper Motor

Hardware

Laser-cut wooden structure

Software

Arduino C/C++, Python (Raspberry Pi)

Interface

Mobile app (order input)

FEATURES

Mobile app ordering with up to 5 customisable ingredients

Raspberry Pi central coordinator for assembly sequencing

6 dedicated ingredient stations (bun, patty, sauce x2, salad x2)

Laser-cut 4-DOF robotic arm

I2C communication network across all Arduino station controllers

Configurable assembly sequence supporting any ingredient combination

CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS

I2C multi-node coordination

Designed an I2C protocol where each ingredient station runs as a slave Arduino node, with a central master Arduino issuing commands sequentially. Each node executes its action and sends an acknowledgement before the master advances to the next station, ensuring ordered and reliable assembly.

Hardcoded assembly sequence with no customisation

Rewrote the assembly sequencing codebase from a fixed routine into a configurable system that reads the customer's ingredient selections from the app and dynamically constructs the execution order, enabling any valid combination of the 5 available ingredients to be assembled correctly.

Motor timing and precision across stations

Tuned step counts and delay intervals for the 28BYJ-48 and NEMA stepper motors, and calibrated SG90 servo angles per station to achieve consistent dispensing volumes and repeatable robotic arm positioning across the full assembly cycle.