Robot Vending Machines Making You Ice Cream

After a long hot day, nothing beats ice cream. Well unless it’s ice cream made by robots.

Reis & Irvy’s is the world’s first fully-automated robotic frozen dessert vending machine. A customer places an order using an interactive touch screen. They can pick from six different flavors along with a variety of toppings. Once customers select exactly what they want, the robot gets to work.

While the customer watches the robot put together their order, the vending machine plays music and shows fun animations. When complete, a robotic arm will slide out the dessert. The whole process takes less than a minute.

Ice Cream Robot Vending Machine Can Run Around the Clock

Along with ice cream and frozen yogurt, you can also get sorbet and gelato. The 15-square-foot robot vending machine can run 24 hours a day and handle up to 60 servings per hour.  Customers can pay in a number of ways including cash, credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and even cryptocurrency.

Along with the novelty of using a robot, the Reis and Irvy’s product is high quality. The ingredients include Dannon’s YoCream and Silk almond milk. For flavoring and toppings, they use leading manufacturer Flavor Burst.

Reis & Irvy’s Robot Collects Sales Data

Thanks to onboard sensors, the robot knows when someone is nearby and will send alerts to support agents when there is a need for maintenance or restocking. The robotic vending machine isn’t just making frozen yogurt, it’s also collecting data, keeping track of things like popular flavors, the busiest time of day, repeat customers, and payment type.

As of now, Reis and Irvy’s is based on a franchise model with costs starting at $120,000. Currently, there are 325 Reis & Irvy’s robotic frozen dessert kiosks located around the globe with thousands more planned in the near future. The company is targeting places like airports, malls, universities, and other high traffic areas.  

Check out our articles on Japan’s airports using facial recognition and Domino’s driverless pizza delivery.