A Global List of Robot Baristas for National and International Coffee Day
Featuring coffee bots from the U.S.A., Singapore, China, Russia, Switzerland and more!
Today is National Coffee Day here in the US, and Friday is International Coffee Day, for all you international readers!
We love coffee here at OttOmate. Well, technically, we love robotic coffee kiosks. The futuristic automated baristas-in-a-box will pour you the perfect cup o’ joe every time.
So to celebrate both Coffee Days and the burgeoning world of robo-baristas, here’s a list of all the startups that we know about making coffee kiosks. (If we’re missing your coffee startup, drop me a line and introduce yourself!).
Artly
Robot: An articulating arm that uses computer vision to learn from human baristas to create latte art.
Locations: Two in Portland, Oregon, three robots installed in San Francisco.
Barney Barista
Robot: A spinoff of Switzerland robotics company F&P Robotics, the Barney bot uses an articulating arm to move cups and serve coffees, sodas and more. Barney’s sister bot is the Barney Bar bartender.
Location: Switzerland
Broobee
Robot: Broobee uses computer vision to train its robot to act like a human barista. Unlike other autonomous coffee kiosks on this list, Broobee has two articulating arms that work in concert with each other to make drinks.
Locations: Portland, Oregon
Cafe X
Robot: The grandaddy of coffee robots, Cafe X uses an articulating armt to make and serve a variety of hot and cold coffee and tea drinks.
Locations: San Francisco Airport, Terminal 3
Costa Coffee (formerly Briggo)
Robot: The Barista Bot foresakes the theatrics of articulating arms in favor of a more an enclosed, appliance-like approach. The machine makes a variety of hot and cold coffee and tea drinks.
Locations: Hard to tell, Costa Coffe’s site lists all of its stores and doesn’t break down the robot kiosks. Back when it was Briggo, the company installed machines at the SFO and Austin airports. I’m not sure if they are still there, however.
Crown Coffee
Robot: In addition to an articulating arm, Crown Digitals kiosks also feature a cool transparent screen for ordering and eventually advertising.
Locations: Singapore
FIBBEE
Robot: An enclosed coffee bar a la the Costa Coffee bot.
Locations: Moscow, Russia
Henn Na
Robot: I visited the Henn Na cafe when I was in Japan a couple years ago. It’s located underground in an office that if I remember correctly, is a travel agency. So it’s less of a standalone business and more of a hook to visit the agency.
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Know Intelligent Technology
Robot: The InBot offers two flavors of its coffee bot: The P Series, which is a rectangular kiosk, and the T Series, which is slightly smaller, round and has a video screen. Both models use Eversys coffee machines, sport dual robotic arms and Know’s inBot OS.
Locations: China, Hong Kong and Dubai.
mia&noa
Robot: The hook with mia&noa is that you have to bring your own cup, which sounds counter-intuitive, but makes sense when you consider that it’s built for locations like offices and universities. Places where the same people visit every day.
Locations: Four machines around Switzerland.
MontyCafe
Robot: Montycafe makes a humanoid looking robot that operates coffee machines (and even serves ice cream!)
Location: Russia
MyApp cafe
Robot: MyAppCafe’s hook is that it prints customizable pictures (like selfies) on your latte’s foam.
Location: Germany, but the machines are coming to the U.S. via a distribution agreement with Robojo.
Orionstar CoffeMaster
Robot: A countertop humanoid robot that makes pour over coffees
Location: China
RoboCafe
Robot: RoboCafe is a sit down-style coffee bar located inside a mall in Dubai. A robot arms prepares the drinks and Roomba-like robotic servers on a counter bring it to you.
Location: Festival City Center, Dubai
Rozum Coffee
Robot: A countertop articlating arm that operates coffe machines.
Locations: ? Not sure. The Company is based in Belarus.
Smyze
Robot: In addition to coffee drinks, Smyze makes a number of different juice-based drinks.
Locations: Four across Switzerland
Truebird
Robot: Perhaps the coolest thing about Truebird is its use of magnetic pucks that elegantly glide your cup when serving you.
Locations: Brooklyn, NY