Kellogg’s made a cereal-mixing robot that automates everything about breakfast (except eating)

Rise and shine! It’s time for your cereal robot butler to get to work mixing up this morning’s crunchy concoction of sugar-fortified goodness. What’s that you say? You don’t have a cereal-prepping robot of your very own? Then maybe it’s time to head back to college, where a new breed of automated flake-dispensing machines will soon be taking over every breakfast chore — except the part where you actually sit down and have to lift the spoon.

In a real-world robot deployment that, for once, doesn’t feel like it was ripped straight from the dystopian foreshadowings of Black Mirror, Kellogg’s and food-tech company Chowbotics (owned by DoorDash) are partnering to serve up some digitized dexterity with your morning noms. Say hello to the Kellogg’s Bowl Bot — a smart vending machine that’s devoted wholly to doing one extremely meaningful thing, and doing it extremely well.

Credit: Chowbotics / Kellogg's

With crispy precision, the Bowl Bot dutifully carries out your touchscreen instructions to go light on the dairy, mix different cereals together (so long as they’re Kellogg’s faves like Frosted Flakes or Corn Pops), and even toss in exactly the right dose of toppings. In what’s sure to catch on and spread like spilt milk, the companies are testing the smart cereal chef on the campuses of Florida State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison — which for now are the only places you can pay the required $3 (for an uncomplicated, I-need-it-now bowl of plain cereal) up to $6.50 (for a more personalized and garnished crunchy morning cocktail).

Credit: Chowbotics / Kellogg's

But the more you spend, the more bespoke your options become. The Kellogg's Bowl Bot comes with a dizzying menu of 22 different options, via Gizmodo, and will even let you start with yogurt instead of milk as your dairy base — should your health-conscious side decide to do battle with your craving for Froot Loops. We’re not sure whether market research went into this part, but the Bowl Bot even comes pre-loaded with a prepared menu of 7 different mix-and-match cereal loadouts that carry their own names: “Hawaii 5-0” for the pairing of Frosted Mini-Wheats, Bear Naked Fit Triple Berry Granola, and dried tropical fruits; “Snap Krackle Pop” for a toothy mix of Rice Krispies, healthy nuts, and seeds; “Chocoholic” (pictured above but in need of no explanation), and more.

Because it’s a smart cookie (hey, someone’s got to take point when you’re groggy and unfocused in the morning), the Bowl Bot doesn’t even require your presence to get started on your eye-opening a.m. blend. Cereal-deprived students can just dial up the accompanying app on their phones, peck through a couple of icon selections, and roll up to receive the day’s first shot of calories whenever they’re good and ready.

So far, there’s no word on whether (or, let’s face it, when) the Bowl Bot will expand its culinary footprint to station itself at a spot near you. But we’re going ahead and declaring an avowed moonshot here: we’re hoping for a home version — even if it has to be scaled down just to dispense our single go-to mix. After all, cereal’s too important to be left to our bumbling morning hands.