Shanghai Hi-Dolphin Robot Technology aims to reduce the costs of operating coffee shops to revive the industry, says Founder Philip Han. He believes his robots can revolutionize the coffee business. Founded in 2018 in Shanghai – the city with the most cafés in the world, according to the local government – Shanghai Hi-Dolphin Robot Technology’s mission is to reduce the cost of brewing a good cup of Java and bring down its price: a win-win situation for both business owners and customers. The company’s solution is Cofe+, a self-contained booth with all the equipment and ingredients needed to make coffee – Americano or cappuccino, hot or iced. At the center of the booth is a four-axis robot arm that fills empty cups, covers them with lids, and hands them over to customers. Complete with grinders and ice makers, the kiosk can prepare a drink in roughly 50 seconds, without a single human barista involved. When fully loaded, each booth can supply around 300 beverages, the firm said.
In some ways, robots are better baristas than humans, according to Han. “Humans can be forgetful, emotional and careless and sometimes they pick or blow their noses,” he said. The Cofe+ machines, on the other hand, are protected by glass and equipped with patented anti-insect and antibacterial technology. Pipelines are automatically cleaned and disinfected, and milk is kept at a constant temperature to keep it fresh for 72 hours. But the biggest advantage of robotic kiosks lies in cost savings, according to Hi-Dolphin. Compared to running a regular café, operating a fully automated booth costs around 90% less, the company said. It takes no more than 30 minutes to refill a kiosk and get it ready for the next cycle, so a maintenance person can take care of up to 10 kiosks a day, according to the company’s website. Each machine sells for between USD50,000 and USD60,000 overseas, and lasts for about 10 years, Han said.
The automated kiosks are also expected to sell well abroad. “It’s much easier to promote the booths overseas, because the labor costs are higher in developed economies,” he said. Hi-Dolphin hopes that its technology can also help China’s coffee shops survive a downturn in the domestic economy. Some 44,000 cafés have closed in the country in the first 10 months of last year, leaving fewer than 192,000 cafés still operating as of late October 2023, according to Chinese food and catering industry intelligence firm Canyin88, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
