94.6% of the revenue comes from commercial use. How many hurdles are there for robot cooking to reach the "family dinner"?

On March 11th, Fotile officially launched the world's first robotic kitchen.

This cooking robotic kitchen is equipped with the industry's first "growing" kitchen embodied intelligence system.

The high-precision robotic arm can accurately perform delicate actions such as picking up and putting down tableware, fetching water, and arranging tableware in the dishwasher. The humanoid robot plays the role of a "chef", smoothly performing actions like pouring oil into a hot pan, stir-frying, and serving the dishes on plates.

Fotile's independently developed ACS auxiliary cooking system is the key to supporting this collaborative operation. Through the integration of infrared thermal imaging, vision, and weight sensing, the system can accurately perceive ingredients, cooking heat, and the environment. The data in the kitchen vertical domain at the scale of hundreds of billions and the knowledge graph of tens of millions of recipes provide important support for meal planning and intelligent decision-making.

It is understood that this product has not yet entered the stage of large-scale mass production and official sales to consumers. However, Fotile's launch undoubtedly adds new imagination space for cooking robots to enter the kitchen.

01 Commercial Use First, the Catering Industry Sees a Wave of "Robotic Kitchens"

Compared with the still-exploratory home scenario, cooking robots have entered an accelerated penetration stage in the catering industry.

The "2026 China Cooking Robot Industry Development White Paper" by Canbaodian points out that before 2010, China's cooking robot industry was in the exploratory stage. It entered the initial application stage in 2010 when the first generation of intelligent cooking machines was born. Since 2014, some machines have tried to enter scenarios such as enterprises and canteens. With breakthroughs in technology and the market, the cooking robot industry entered an accelerated development stage in 2025.

Data from Canbaodian shows that the market scale of China's cooking robot industry reached 3.81 billion yuan in 2025 and is expected to exceed 12.5 billion yuan by 2030. Among them, the revenue of commercial cooking robots accounts for 94.6%, showing the characteristics of "commercial use first, home use exploration".

Currently, many catering brands have made relevant layouts.

Xiaocaiyuan introduced cooking robots in some stores since 2023. The prospectus shows that it plans to spend 100 million yuan to purchase 2,000 units. Laoxiangji has laid out full-category intelligence. As of the end of April 2025, 388 restaurants have been equipped with intelligent cooking equipment, intelligent steam cabinets, intelligent chicken soup stoves, etc., achieving intelligent collaboration in the kitchen. Guoquan acquired the intelligent cooking equipment manufacturer Xiongmao Dashi and launched cooking robots in its first offline store in Henan, connecting the intelligent chain from food supply to catering production. "Qixian Xiaochu" under JD.com also introduced cooking robots to explore a new model of on-site stir-fried takeaways.

The entry of various brands has continuously expanded the application scenarios of cooking robots. However, on the other hand, the industry has always faced a core question: Can the dishes cooked by robots replicate the "wok hei"?

Undoubtedly, robot cooking is becoming an irreversible trend in the catering industry. A research report from Haitong International points out that Xiaocaiyuan's net profit increased significantly in the first half of 2025, benefiting from factors such as optimizing the store area to reduce fixed costs, increasing labor efficiency through the use of cooking robots, and spreading raw material costs through economies of scale. It is estimated that a restaurant can save 2 to 3 kitchen staff after introducing robots.

However, the practical challenges of robot cooking are also clear. The control of cooking heat and seasoning is not as flexible as that of experienced chefs, lacking the smoky flavor. The equipment purchase and maintenance costs are high, putting considerable pressure on small stores. Currently, the variety of dishes that can be processed is limited, and there is still room for improvement to fully adapt to complex Chinese cuisine.

02 How Far Is the Cooking Robot from Home Use?

Compared with the rapid implementation in the commercial scenario, there is still a long way to go for cooking robots to truly enter households.

The Research Department of CITIC Securities predicts that 2026 is expected to be the "year of mass production" for the robot industry. At the capital level, through institutional innovation in IPOs on the A-share and Hong Kong stock markets, it will undertake the wave of asset securitization in the industrial chain. However, industry insiders generally believe that the current industry data and models are still in the exploratory stage. There are different judgments in the industry about when the home application will explode, whether it will take 5 years or 10 years.

Wan Chunhui, the deputy secretary-general of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, believes that the home scenario has become the ultimate goal recognized by all robot enterprises. More and more enterprises are investing a large amount of resources to conduct explorations such as data collection and real - scene training around the home scenario. However, the complexity of the home scenario also makes the industry face common problems such as repeated data collection, inconsistent technical paths, and lack of standards. There are many issues to be resolved in the collaboration between home appliance enterprises and robot enterprises.

Ding Wenchao, the chief scientist of Tashizhihang, predicts that robots will develop rapidly in the industrial field from 2026 - 2027, undertaking multiple tasks. Around 2027, there may be early application opportunities in the home field, mainly focusing on scenarios such as emotional companionship and educational services.

"Traditional home appliance enterprises integrate upwards from home appliances, and embodied intelligence enterprises extend downwards. The two paths will eventually converge. Traditional enterprises understand households and users better. The integration and learning of both sides will accelerate the implementation process of the home scenario."

The kitchen, as the most complex, most frequently used, and most safety - demanding scenario in the home, undoubtedly puts forward higher requirements for embodied intelligence.

However, more and more enterprises are paying attention to the application of robots in the home kitchen and taking steps to explore.

Tineco launched the "Shiwan" series of household cooking robots, which support the replication of personalized tastes for "thousands of people, thousands of flavors". Through the "embodied cooking body", it simulates 10 levels of fire control and 8 seasoning actions. The price of household products is within 10,000 yuan, focusing on the concept of on - site stir - frying and non - pre - made dishes.

Robam entered from wearable devices such as "AI cooking glasses", emphasizing that "AI enables creation rather than replacement" and focusing on human - machine collaboration.

Vatti launched products such as the "AI health kitchen butler" and the "hidden nested series", integrating functions such as AI adaptive smoke control and AI safety monitoring, evolving towards a system - level intelligent kitchen.

Fotile, which launched the kitchen robot this time, has actually carried out a systematic exploration for eight years. In 2018, Fotile established Hangzhou Fotile Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. to layout the development of intelligent robots. In 2020, it launched the first cooking robot through its light - kitchen brand Miboi to test the market. In 2025, it exhibited a 3D full - perception robotic arm at the AWE exhibition, laying the foundation for the execution layer of the robot.

With the continuous maturity of technology and products, it is believed that cooking robots will enter the kitchen sooner.

In the future, from the kitchen to the home, the evolution of cooking robots is not only a long - distance race of technology but also a deep exploration of the understanding of "smoky flavor".

Reference materials:

1. Beijing News: Are chefs going to lose their jobs as robot cooking is coming in full force?

2. Chengxian Science Popularization: Science and Technology Viewpoint | How long will it take for embodied intelligent robots to enter households?

3. Wenhui Daily: The world's first! A cooking robotic kitchen makes its debut in Ningbo.

4. Canbaodian: 2026 China Cooking Robot Industry Development White Paper

5. Yicai Global: Robots are moving from the living room to the kitchen. They can cook but won't "fire" the chefs.