Philip Han believes his robots can revolutionise the coffee business in Shanghai and beyond.
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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.
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“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.