Café in Taiwan uses robots to make drinks
Taiwanese tea shop, Babo Arms, is using a Universal Robots arm as part of its production process.
Babo Arms were searching for an automated device to enhance its operations and perform mundane, repetitive tasks.
Babo Arms value the intimacy of a traditional tea shop, with employees building relationships with customers and ensuring that their experience is pleasant and welcoming. However, the low birth rate in Taiwan and the high turnover rate in the food and beverage industry have led to an urgent need to find a solution to maintain a stable workforce and reduce the amount of time spent on orientation training.
Babo Arms selected the UR5 as a collaborative robot (cobot) that would be able to take over the most repetitive and simple tasks whilst working safely side by side human workers. The UR5 was chosen for its utility in making tea and drinks, meaning staff were no longer required to memorise a mass of ingredients. This allowed for more time and effort to be put into more creative aspects of the business, such as in product development – providing more innovative flavours and drinks ahead of competitors.
The collaborative aspect of the UR cobot also proved beneficial as it was helpful in areas that were limited on space. More traditional automated devices for production must be kept at a distance from workers and usually function in a closed off area, taking up space and not allowing for resources to be fully optimised. These other unmanned tools also cost the business in customer interactions; Babo Arms determined that they must maintain customer intimacy in their shift to automation. Ultimately, the cobot didn’t replace manpower with robots, it simply enhanced the value of human resources.
The cobots are perfectly suited for simplistic, repetitive tasks and offer great flexibility as they can rotate 360-degrees, mimicking a human arm. The right gripper allows for the cobot to carry out more monotonous work alongside employees, such as making tea, cleaning cups, tilting, grabbing and handing out drinks. Employees can therefore turn their attention away from these mundane tasks and towards time to interact with customers, taking on feedback and improving quality of service.
About Universal Robots
Universal Robots was co-founded in 2005 by Esben Østergaard who wanted to make robot technology accessible to all by developing small, user-friendly, reasonably priced, flexible industrial robots that are safe to work with. Since the first collaborative robot (cobot) was launched in 2008, the company has experienced considerable growth with the user-friendly cobot now sold worldwide. For more information, please visit www.universal-robots.com or read our blog at blog.universal-robots.com.
About Babo Arms
Babo Arms is a Taiwanese café that serves a creative range of coffees, teas and snacks with the help of robot technology. For more information on Babo Arms please visit https://baboarms.business.site/.