A group of companies have worked together to create what they said is the world's first fully automated fast food counter, though there are other robotic preparation and cooking tools, particularly in the pizza industry. The new robotic counter is powered by a fast food cooking and serving robot made by Augsburg, Germany-based, Kuka AG and dubbed KR 3 Agilus.

Kuka partnered with Brazil's Bionicook and another Brazilian automation company, Auttom, to create the fast food counter, which was first shown last year at a trade fair in Brazil. The news release said that through the fast food machine, customers can choose between 14 snacks, two desserts, three salads and 15 beverages.

Guests place their order via a touch panel, pay and then the robot starts making the order and autonomously handles and serves it. To create orders, it not only fetches the ingredients needed, but cooks them if necessary and plates them. The release said all food used by the machine is deep-frozen and pre-portioned. Orders are served within three minutes, with up to 100 orders an hour.

It has a payload capacity of a little more than 6½ pounds and can reach of 1¾ feet.

The solution recently won the German Design Awards 2020 in Frankfurt for product design.