Meet the robot barista that could be coming to a café near you

A novel concept, a robot barista found at the Rozum Café in Minsk, has become the basis for a fully-fledged franchise thanks to Rozum Robotics extending its reach into the Middle East and beyond.

The Cubo Coffee House chain is set up at five locations across Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with an additional one in Dubai for a total of nine units. The hubs will be set up by local engineering firm EMC with the parts needed to be supplied by Rozum.

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The new locations will build upon the successes found at the Rozum Café, an autonomous coffee room where a robotic barista being is in charge of making the world's favourite hot drink 24/7, which was set up back in 2018.

However, the onset of the pandemic highlighted the importance of autonomy in a world of social distancing and hygiene.

"We love coffee - we are coffee addicts, and this project is our way of reinventing the wheel, so to speak," Rozum Robotics CCO Eugene Kovalenko told Industry Europe.

"This is our way of providing high-quality coffee to fellow coffee lovers across the world without any dependency on errors, recipes violates, fatigue and so on."

The robot uses a Rozum Pulse arm, which was designed to fulfil a number of tasks from educational to industrial, to perform much of the handiwork.

The robotic arm can reportedly whip up six classic hot beverages as well as three iced coffee drinks without the need for human assistance. The Belorussian developer claims the robot can serve up to 400 drinks per shift, can serve one drink per minute, with the automation ensuring "consistent" flavour and quality.

Rozum claims the arm has "six degrees" of motion freedom, similar to those found in a human arm, potentially being able to able up to 95% of any task a human could perform.

Eventually, it hopes the tech could be rolled out internationally to aid in places such as hospitals where people may be at risk of infection or contagion while offering a safer experience for all involved. Due to it not needing water or sewage links, it is also perfect for busy locations such as airports and shopping centres.

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The company also claims it could help plug a skill and labour shortage found generally in the food and beverage or hospitality sectors, with companies constantly struggling to maintain adequate worker numbers - which can lead to staff being underpaid and overworked.

"We hope the robot will be able to fill certain niches - we're definitely not interested in replacing current baristas and the conventional coffee shops, but this is a specialised alternative to the types of coffee you may get from something like a vending machine", Kovalenko added.

Outside of the Middle East, the company is also looking at opening more hubs across Europe and internationally over the coming months.

Kovalenko concluded: "We are currently in the process of setting up a robot in Ukraine, and we have just shipped a robot off to Cyprus and are in talks to set up hubs in Poland and Germany.

"In the late Spring or early summer, we are also planning on launching a barista in the US, either in Miami or Los Angeles. The patent has been sorted, but its location has yet to be finalised".

- Below is a video exploring the concept below. More information is available on their website.

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