WHAT STARTED OUT as a “whimsical dream” for a US father to entertain his two young daughters has become the world’s first robotic pancake printer.

And lots of people apparently want to get their hands on the machine, called PancakeBot, which has raised nearly $400,000 on crowdfunding site Kickstarter from over 1,800 backers with four days left to run.

Inventor Miguel Valenzuela said the project began as a plan to make a pancake machine out of Lego for his family, but he said there was so much interest in his earlier prototypes that he decided to make an advanced, kitchen-ready version.

The machine, developed with New York-based Storebound, uses a robotic arm to “draw” the pancake batter with a vacuum-pressured gun to controlling the squirt.

It comes with pre-loaded pancake designs, while users can also load their own shapes and outlines.

Kickstarter Kickstarter

Its creators had only been looking for $50,000 in funding, but they have now sold over 1,000 of the units at $179 a pop (plus shipping for those outside the US), while 39 backers had pledged to pay $849 each for half a dozen of the units.

Pancakes for all, then.

First published 12.17pm

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