The U.S. Army is testing an autonomous dining facility in South Korea, called Market 19, where a robotic system portions, cooks, and plates meals selected through a touchscreen interface.

The system prepares dishes using official Army recipes and offers options including Korean meals such as bibimbap, kimchi fried rice, and budae jjigae.

While the kitchen is automated, culinary specialists still handle food safety, ingredient preparation, and quality control.

Army officials say the goal is not to replace food service personnel but to free them for training and to improve meal quality while providing flexible, “anytime, anywhere” feeding capability, the Military Times has reported.

The six-month pilot, part of the Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation Capability program, will help determine whether robotic kitchens should be deployed more broadly.