In Switzerland we don’t mess with fondue, the national dish of melted cheeses, and Bouébot the robot does things according to the rules of the art and also the show.
At the headquarters of Workshop 4.0, its creators are busy making the final adjustments before their machine leaves for one of the most important agricultural fairs in the world, the Paris International Agricultural Show, which begins on Saturday.
In the workshop, which is located in Sierre at the foot of the famous ski resort of Crans Montana in the canton of Valais, the waiters hum and the air is heavy with the aroma of melted cheese.
Bouébot – which derives its name from the bouébos, these teenagers who served as a little hand on the mountain pastures – sets off.
The robot arm, articulated around six axes, pours the right amount of white wine into the fondue pot, the traditional container and places it under the cheese grater…
The iconic dish, which became known and loved around the world during the Universal Exhibition in New York in 1939-40, remains at the heart of Swiss conviviality.
Workshop 4.0 had invented roboclette or artificial intelligence and robotics serving another traditional Valais dish: raclette.
“We wanted to do a project a second time that combined innovation and Swiss tradition and then the fondue was all found,” explains Nicolas Fontaine, 36 and co-director of Workshop 4.0, to AFP.
“For the Swiss, fondue is emblematic. It’s something very emotional too because it’s part of our identity, our know-how”, recalls the young entrepreneur, black baseball cap screwed on his head.
“I think that in terms of interaction we will have a lot of people” during the demonstrations, believes Mr. Fontaine.
“It’s a great opportunity to get people to discuss robotics and how it’s used,” he said.
– Soft dough, hard dough –
If for a human preparing a fondue and tasting it does not present any particular difficulty apart from finding the right ingredients, it is quite different for a robot.
A classic fondue mix is called half and half and as the name suggests involves half Vacherin, a soft cheese and Gruyère, a hard cheese.
For Ludovic Aymon, technical manager, the biggest challenge is to manage to “teach” a precision robot to manage the imperfections of an organic product: the different consistency, the varying thickness and the roughness.
“It’s a living material (…) I can’t just base myself on a 3D simulation as can be done with a lot of industrial processes. I have to have real tests to validate my processes”, explains Mr. Aymon.
Obviously out of the question to change the cheeses if we want to stay alive, jokes the engineer.
Bouébot continues valiantly. He cuts the crust, puts the fondue pot under the scraper before grating the cheese.
He then stirs vigorously and rigorously with roller coasters, the mixture which gradually melts and mixes.
The robot does not forget to wipe the excess cheese on the spoon on the rim of the pot before adding a little pepper.
– Run and repeat –
The sequence was repeated countless times, according to Aymon, to keep refining it.
Once the desired consistency has been reached, Bouébot sticks a fondue skewer in a piece of bread, plunges it into the fondue pot, a pirouette and it’s ready to eat.
The spectacle – Bouébot is a demonstration robot – can excite the possibilities opened up by the machine or cause concern.
“The effect that I find most interesting is the fear effect”, that of being replaced by something more powerful, more precise, says Ludovic Aymon, who “does it for the show”.
“For me, robotics in general should not be at the expense of humans. It must help the human,” he adds.
The project – carried out with the help of the Vacherin and Gruyère interprofession – cost between 250,000 and 300,000 Swiss francs (235,000 to 285,000 euros) not including the cost of labour.
And when the fondue is done, you have to eat it.
“Tired of fondue? I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it, but there were a few times when I couldn’t smell the smell of cheese here anymore,” admits Mr. Aymon.
