Shanghai’s robot start-up wants to brew up a coffee revolution with automated kiosks
Philip Han believes his robots can revolutionise the coffee business in Shanghai and beyond.
Founded in 2018 in the eastern Chinese metropolis – the city with the most cafes in the world, according to the local government – Shanghai Hi-Dolphin Robot Technology’s mission is to reduce the cost of brewing a good cup of Java and bring down its price: a win-win situation for both business owners and customers.
The company’s solution is Cofe+, a self-contained cuboid booth equipped with all the equipment and ingredients needed to make coffee – Americano or cappuccino, hot or iced. At the centre of the booth is a four-axis robot arm that fills empty cups, covers them with lids, and hands them over to customers.
Complete with grinders and ice makers, the kiosk can prepare a drink in roughly 50 seconds, without a single human barista involved. When fully loaded, each booth can supply around 300 beverages, the firm said.
In some ways, robots are better baristas than humans, according to Han.
“Humans can be forgetful, emotional and careless … and sometimes they pick or blow their noses,” he said. The Cofe+ machines, on the other hand, are protected by glass and equipped with patented anti-insect and antibacterial technology. Pipelines are automatically cleaned and disinfected, and milk is kept at a constant temperature to keep it fresh for 72 hours.
