When the robot turns into a barista

GENTING LANE, Singapore - June 30, 2024 - PRLog -- Fancy a coffee, but your favourite café isn't close by? The cobot ReBeL from Cologne-based company igus® (https://www.igus.sg/) turns into a waiter and serves delicious coffee in a matter of seconds. The only thing you have to do is push a button.

Black or with milk and sugar? A lot of businesspeople are familiar with this phrase when visiting a company. It's often followed by a trip to the usual capsule machine, with the preparation process taking a back seat. For igus® and the robotics platform RBTX.com, the matter is very different: Anyone ordering a coffee at the Cologne-based company's stand will witness a very special "barista". The fresh coffee is served completely autonomously by the ReBeL robot arm, which attracts attention. The company has intelligently combined the cobot with a high-quality coffee machine, just like the one you would find in the café round the corner. Anyone ordering a coffee simply pushes a button and the ReBeL gets to work first it takes a coffee cup from the stack, selects the appropriate program on the coffee machine and holds the cup under the dispenser. The whole process takes just a few seconds, and the customers have freshly brewed coffee in their hands.

Mobility thanks to six degrees of freedom

These delicate movements are made possible by the ReBeL's six degrees of freedom. The robot weighs just 8kg and is therefore extremely versatile. The arm can carry a payload of up to 2kg with a reach of 66.4cm. The ReBeL really comes into its own in confined working spaces. "By connecting it to the coffee machine, we show how easy it is to work with a cobot," explains Alexander Mühlens, Head of the Low-Cost Automation (https://www.igus.sg/info/igus-low-cost-automation) Business Unit at igus®. The cobot communicates with the coffee machine via digital I/Os, and operation is simple and intuitive. With igus® Robot Control, the manufacturer also provides free and licence-free control software that can even be used to test the robot before purchase. Together with a customer, igus® is currently working on the further development of the barista robot. In future, it will also be able to do latte art and create milk foam images to set it apart from other fully automatic coffee machines.