Comments on: Cheese-flipping robot patiently rotates gruyere

By: livelongandpester

livelongandpester — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 06:16:00 +0000

As a bonus, do not activate the video, but look at the picture as you scroll up or down on your screen. If you see what I see, an amazing optical illusion occurs as you scroll the image higher or lower on the screen.

By: GTMoogle

GTMoogle — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 12:04:00 +0000

What you’re missing is the great length of time the cheese is sitting in that warehouse. The robot isn’t just flipping them, it’s also moving them down the line as it goes, so the cheese is slowly slowly migrating through on each pass.
But cheese takes time. If they made a robot that flipped two wheels at once, it would be spending half its time idle. Less efficient!

Even if they double the warehouse capacity and need two robots (I suspect they might already have several), I think parallel serial robots will lead to more regular flipping distribution, as well as the benefits from reduced spares. Cheese waits for no robot needing repairs, so having 2 expensive robots and 1 spare is less good than 4 cheaper robots and 1 spare.

Or we both might be overthinking the problem :)

(HAH! Saved my comment from destruction! Suck it Disqus!)

By: ravenlunatick

ravenlunatick — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 20:09:00 +0000

Brain the size of a planet and what do they have me doing?

By: IndexMe

IndexMe — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 16:28:00 +0000

But he doesn’t seem to mind..

By: Robert Baruch

Robert Baruch — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:35:00 +0000

You should’ve seen the more sinister headline considered earlier: “Robot patiently bides its time while flipping Gruyere.”

By: Narmitaj

Narmitaj — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:39:00 +0000

This actually was one of my summer jobs as a student in 1977, at Crump Way Cheese Factors in Wells in Somerset, no longer with us. We had to turn 60lb truckles of farmhouse Cheddar; this is the sort of thing, though our truckles were less mouldy than these items ageing in Wookey Hole caves, which are only about two miles from where my Cheese Factors warehouse was, btw. For those who recognise it - yes, Wookey Hole has been used as a location for Dr Who and Harry Potter, but I am pretty sure my warehouse wasn't.

By: awjt

awjt — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:05:00 +0000

Yet another example of a serial solution to a parallel problem.

By: HubrisSonic

HubrisSonic — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 08:19:00 +0000

Flipping cheese robot.

By: dayhat

dayhat — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 07:18:00 +0000

could somebody please remix this with “Giant murderous half-ton car-part junkbot will hold 32 bottles of wine for you” for the perfect Teacher-Parent cheese and wine and robots night?

By: rocketpjs

rocketpjs — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 05:28:00 +0000

Employment matters, but I don’t see why it has to be the same employment forevermore. The nature of work changes all the time, and a lot of jobs that currently exist would not have been remotely possible without a lot of automation and generalized cost reductions.

30 years ago my company would have needed a secretary, accountants, a librarian, an office and all the rest- and therefore would not have existed (especially in the starting phase). Now it does, and it employs people in jobs that would not have existed then either.

By: nox

nox — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 05:11:00 +0000

I find your mocking of the common man losing their livelihood and ability to support themselves and their family entertaining.

By: nox

nox — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 04:34:00 +0000

It seems they’ve flooded the market with mild Gruyère-like cheese. Perhaps this is to please the masses, but I’m stuck hunting down and paying a premium for cave aged Gruyère.

Edit: Horay for google chrome spellcheck adding accents :P

By: malindrome

malindrome — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 03:48:00 +0000

Wonder how many more people can afford to eat gruyere now that the cost of making it fell?

By: BombBlastLightingWaltz

BombBlastLightingWaltz — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 03:26:00 +0000

The robot patiently turns the cheese? Unlike its co-robots which are snarky and surly, constantly needing lost production down time for programming readjustments.

Reminiscent of the Luddite movement. Wonder how many humans the robots replaced?

By: stillcantfightthedite

stillcantfightthedite — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 03:18:00 +0000

durk a durr!

By: snagglepuss

snagglepuss — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 01:44:00 +0000

This needs a Phillip Glass soundtrack.

By: Assault_is_eternal

Assault_is_eternal — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 01:34:00 +0000

dey turk err jurbz!

By: nixiebunny

nixiebunny — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 01:01:00 +0000

This looks a lot like the aging room with billions of dollars worth of cheese that was destroyed by the Italian earthquake a couple months ago.

By: Ness Creighton

Ness Creighton — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:52:00 +0000

I’ve developed an unhealthy obsession with food handling and medical packaging robots since my husband started working with them. They are so nifty! Little bits of the future, in places where no one but a very few ever sees them.

By: robdobbs

robdobbs — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:18:00 +0000

What does this have to do with Giger? I was expecting more vaginas and biomechanics.

*yea, we’re joking here

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:16:00 +0000

I am disappointed. Cheese robot shouldcbe cute.

By: drongo

drongo — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:42:00 +0000

Does the music add to the flavour?

By: charming.quark

charming.quark — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:37:00 +0000

Cheese robot is my next band name.

By: Michael Hogsett

Michael Hogsett — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:16:00 +0000

My perception of the size of the cheese wheels and the robot were way, way off until the camera zoomed out to reveal the man walking by gave me scale.