Barista Robot Helping Social Distancing at Korean Cafe

As things begin to slowly get back to normal in South Korea, most places are still attempting to keep up social distancing. One cafe in Daejeon is turning to robots to help improve efficiency and also cut down on person to person interaction. 

Developed by smart factory solution provider Vision Semicon and a state-run science institute, the barista robots both make and serve coffee. The system uses a robotic arm to make the drinks and a serving robot to bring them to customers.

The bots can communicate with each other and are equipped with self-driving technology to navigate the best routes around the cafe. They will say things like “Here is your Rooibos almonds tea latte, please enjoy. It’s even better if you stir it,”

“Our system needs no input from people from order to delivery, and tables were sparsely arranged to ensure smooth movements of the robots, which fits well with the current ‘untact’ and distancing campaign,” said Lee Dong-bae, director of research at Vision Semicon.

Barista Robot Can Mix 60 Types of Coffee

Ordering is done using a kiosk in the cafe. The robots, who can mix up to 60 different types of coffee, were able to make six drinks in under seven minutes.

The cafe isn’t completely devoid of human workers though. One is around for cleaning duties and to refill ingredients. The company has plans to supply at least 30 cafes in the country with robots by the end of this year.

image credit: Reuters

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