A robot that makes pizzas to your own specifications in just three minutes is being launched in the US market. It could revolutionize programming as we know it... or not...

A1 Concepts "Let's Pizza" vending machines contain ingredients for 200 pizzas at a time and, according to the video demonstrating the machine, produce robo-pizzas that are "untouched by human hands" in a "human-free environment".

The machines are connected to the Internet, and can be restocked automatically. The manufacturers say they can provide any sort of topping, including meat, fish, vegetarian, kosher and halal pizzas.

A1 Concepts is planning to install "Let's Pizza" machines in malls, universities, airports, supermarkets, gas stations, bus stations, and even hospitals across the USA, so you may well encounter one quite soon.  The machine takes cash and credit cards and a 10-inch pizza will sell for about $5.95.

Given the urban myth that programmers are fueled by pizza and cola, then presumably one of these will soon be fitted to every startup to ensure that pizzas are delivered in a timely manner. Soon it could be part of the agile methodology - stories, pair programming and robot pizza.  "My team increased its efficiency by 500% simply by not having to wait for the delivery - not to mention avoiding food poisoning of various types."

Unfortunately, the pizza robot doesn’t seem to have an SDK as yet, but there’s bound to be a control panel somewhere that an intrepid programmer could explore. Programming your own robot pizzas, now there’s a topic that combines several interest areas. Not to mention hacking and malware. First one to figure out how to reprogram it to create a burrito...

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