Cotton Candy Robot: From Fairy Floss to ABB Arms

Cotton candy is mostly air. A spoonful of sugar is melted, flung through tiny holes and caught on a stick as a cloud of threads. Because the physics is so simple, the treat moved easily from hand work to machines, and a cotton candy robot spinning flower shapes is now a normal sight in shopping malls. This post follows spun sugar from European confectioners to the electric machine William Morrison and John C. Wharton built in 1897. Then it looks at the self-service kiosks that spin shaped floss on demand today, where ABB food robots could fit in, and what still holds the idea back in homes and factories.

A street vendor in India spinning pink cotton candy in a drum machine. Photo: Manjit Singh / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

From hand-spun sugar to Fairy Floss at the 1904 World's Fair

Before machines, spun sugar was a luxury. Confectioners worked hot sugar syrup into fine threads by hand to decorate desserts for wealthy tables. Some sources trace forms of it to Italy as early as the 15th century. In 19th-century Europe it was still expensive and labor-intensive to make, so most people never tasted it. The threads were fragile, they went sticky in damp air, and the whole craft depended on the cook's hands. A quick, cheap portion for a crowd at a fair was out of reach until someone found a way to spin the sugar mechanically.

Crowds on the Pike at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, where machine-spun Fairy Floss was first sold to the public. Photo: Underwood & Underwood / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

In 1897 dentist William Morrison and confectioner John C. Wharton invented a machine that spun sugar with electricity. A heated head melted the sugar and centrifugal force pushed it out through small holes, where the strands cooled in the air and gathered in a bowl. They sold the result as Fairy Floss at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis and moved 68,655 boxes at 25 cents each. In 1905 Albert D. Robinson of Lynn, Massachusetts, filed a patent for an electric candy spinning machine, and by 1907 he had transferred the rights to General Electric. In 1921 New Orleans dentist Joseph Lascaux patented a similar machine. His name for the product, cotton candy, stuck in America.

The heated spinning head of a cotton candy machine, with sugar threads caught on its rim. Photo: Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Early machines needed a skilled operator and broke down often. Gold Medal introduced a sprung base in 1949 that made them reliable enough to become standard fairground equipment, and the company went on to build nearly all commercial machines in the United States. By the late 1970s some machines spun the floss and packaged it with little hand work. Modern commercial heads hold up to 3 pounds of sugar and spin at 3,450 rpm. At the fair stand, a person still twirled the paper cone around the bowl. That wrist movement is the part today's robot machines have taken over.

A Belgian sailor hands cotton candy, then called sponge sugar, to a girl at a carnival in Oswego, New York, in 1943. Photo: Marjory Collins, Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

How cotton candy robots work in malls today

The newest machines put the whole stall in a glass cabinet. A self-service cotton candy machine takes payment on a touch screen and spins a portion while the customer watches. One was photographed serving floss at the Oxford Valley Mall in Pennsylvania in August 2026. In July 2026 Sweet Robo and ICEE announced two automated machines. The vending model is meant for malls, family entertainment centers, amusement parks and theaters, and the countertop Mini Pro is for convenience stores and specialty retailers. Each offers four to six flavors, and the first shipment was set at 100 machines.

A self-service cotton candy vending machine in Neumarkt Oerlikon, Zurich, in 2023. Photo: 1-Byte / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Many of these cabinets hide a small robot arm. It takes a paper stick, holds it next to the spinning head and moves it in a set pattern, layering colored floss into shapes such as flowers. In January 2024 a machine called Crazy Candy at the Next Galleria mall in Hyderabad, India, used a robotic arm to make any of 30 designs in about two minutes. In Japan, CANDY SPIN machines offer 24 designs for 500 yen and take about two minutes per portion. Each design is a motion path with timing, much like the programs engineers build and test in RobotStudio before a real cell runs.

The small robot arm inside a self-service cotton candy machine in Shenzhen holds a stick beside the spinning bowl. Photo: KWUNGAM Haueng Chanem / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB does not sell a cotton candy machine, and we found no source showing an ABB arm inside one. Its food robots do suggest how the job could scale up. The IRB 1200 Hygienic comes in wipe-down and wash-down versions, and ABB aims it at food handling for quick service restaurants, kiosks and central kitchens. At BurgerBots in Los Gatos, California, an IRB 360 FlexPicker and a YuMi assemble burgers in front of customers. As a possibility, a GoFa CRB 15000 cobot could twirl sticks at a busy festival stand, or a FlexPicker could pack bagged floss in a factory. Our post on ice cream robots covers a similar dessert counter.

An ABB YuMi cobot finishing a burger at BurgerBots in Los Gatos, California. Photo: ABB

Where the cotton candy robot goes next

Countertop cotton candy makers are already sold for home parties, but someone still has to hold the stick, and the result is a plain cloud rather than a flower. A home robot version would need a heater small hands cannot reach and a bowl that is easy to wipe out. It would also have to cost far less than a mall cabinet. None of the shaped floss machines we found is sold as a home appliance. They are commercial units built for malls, arcades and theme parks, where heavy foot traffic pays back the machine.

Cotton candy from a vending machine at the Oxford Valley Mall in Pennsylvania, August 2026. Photo: Famartin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

For venues and factories the open questions are cost, hygiene and uptime. A vending cabinet has to be refilled with sugar and sticks, and stray threads have to be cleared from the bowl. Humid summer air makes the floss messy, and the machine still has to keep working. Operators also want to add designs and flavors without sending a technician, which calls for remote recipe updates, cameras that check each portion and a safety stop when someone opens the door. On bigger lines that bag floss for shops, the IRB 1200 Hygienic and the fast IRB 360 FlexPicker are designed for this kind of food handling.

An ABB IRB 1200 Hygienic robot picking bananas, a food handling demo. Photo: ABB

Skills are the last problem. A fair vendor learns the wrist motion with practice, while tuning a robot pattern for a new shape takes path planning, test runs and safe stops. ABB's Wizard easy programming and lead-through teaching on GoFa lower that barrier, as our page on no-code robot control explains. Over the next few years, expect more shaped floss kiosks in malls and theme parks, more licensed flavors, and perhaps compact versions for cafes. Each of them will still be built around a heated spinning head like the one Morrison and Wharton made in 1897.

ABB's GoFa cobot is guided by hand and stops when it senses contact. Photo: ABB

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