ABB Robots in Coffee: From Barista Bar to Robot Café

For most of the last century, a good espresso depended on one person's hands. A barista ground the beans, tamped the basket, pulled the shot and steamed the milk while also taking orders. Early vending machines were faster, but they poured instant coffee that nobody mistook for a café drink.

A barista at work in a North American coffeehouse. Photo: Bobzemuda, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Robot cafés now make the real thing. This month COFE+ showed its seventh-generation kiosk at China's CIFTIS trade fair. It fits in about two square metres, uses a six-axis arm to make more than 300 drinks, and is sold in 75 countries. Singapore's Changi Airport already has a robot barista booth.

A robot barista kiosk at Singapore Changi Airport, Terminal 3. Photo: Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ABB has been serving coffee with robots for years. Its dual-arm YuMi (IRB 14000) made drinks for shoppers at Selfridges in London in 2018, and YuMi barista cells later turned up at trade shows. With two arms, it can hold a cup in one hand and work the machine with the other.

ABB YuMi making coffee for shoppers at Smartech, Selfridges London. Photo: ABB

The GoFa CRB 15000 cobot suits a bigger kiosk. It carries 5 kg, reaches about 950 mm and has torque sensors in every joint that stop it when it touches someone, so it can work behind a counter without a full cage. ABB's OmniCore controller and Wizard easy programming let an operator change a recipe step without code.

An ABB GoFa CRB 15000 cobot being guided by hand. Photo: ABB

Homes come after that. Humanoid and mobile-manipulator start-ups are teaching robots to load dishwashers and fetch cups, and making coffee is a favourite demo. ABB RobotStudio helps with this kind of work, since a recipe can be tested in simulation before a real arm goes near a hot steam wand.

A robotic coffee kiosk from Mt. Comfort Coffee. Photo: Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The neighbourhood barista who knows your order will probably keep that job. Robots fit the shifts that are hard to staff, like an airport counter at 5 a.m. or a hospital lobby at midnight, and later perhaps a kitchen counter at home. Many arms suited to that work, ABB's included, started out in factories.

ABB YuMi (IRB 14000) dual-arm collaborative robot. Photo: ABB

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