King Mongkut Institute of Technology’s Lat Krabang campus has introduced three culinary innovations to enhance the safety of street food and promote tourism, including a robot that cooks barbequed pork.

The institute has also developed cooking courses for beginners and vendors who want to improve the quality, taste and hygiene of street food.

The prototype robotic arm, which was designed by the medical and environmental equipment research lab at the Faculty of Science, can barbeque pork so vendors don’t have to tend the grill all the time and can do other things, said Associate Professor Anupong Songprapa.

He explained that the robot was programmed to know how long it takes to cook the meat thoroughly without overcooking.

Another innovation is a fruit vending cart, which is fully equipped with a refrigeration system to preserve the fruit and a water filtering system to ensure that the water used to clean the fruit is hygienic.

The third innovation is the barbeque push cart, which is equipped with a grill, air filter, water filter, a tank to store waste water and oil and a solar powered lighting system.