Frothy sales sought from robot barista

 The firm expects to officially launch the product on the city state’s domestic market by the end of this year before expanding its business base to global markets at a later stage.
Keith Tan, founder and chief executive officer of Crown Coffee, said that the firm worked with business partners to develop the robot barista, dubbed Ella, to benefit coffee lovers around the world.
 It spent one year to develop the robot, which can provide around 15 types of popular coffee offerings, such as Americano, cappuccino and cafe latte. 
“Ella is a six-axis robot and is fully automated with state-of-the-art technology, like facial recognition software that recognises customers and their favourite types of coffee,” Tan said.
“The robot’s production rate is five times faster then a regular barista’s. Being fully automated and using cloud computing, we can track usage levels of coffee grounds, water, milk, temperature and total output.”
The robot was shown off at a press conference for Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific 2018 in Singapore. The event, which is being organised SingEx, will be held on October 16-18 at the Singapore Expo.
 “The robot can provide coffee 24/7 and help coffee owners reduce the costs of hiring a barista to support and manage their coffee shops,” said Tan. 
“For coffee lovers who want to drink coffee, they can just order their favourite coffee from the computer display screen and then the robot can offer coffee for you. 
“We plan to offer the robot for 24/7 use around the world. It can serve coffee at airports, train stations and hospitals. We can scale up very quickly, depending on the demands of the market.”
He said the robot barista can provide 200 cups of coffee an hour. Tan’s company is negotiating with Changi Airport to set up the robot in the airport. 
“We will able to provide efficiency and quality with our robotic barista for the benefit of the market,” Tan said. The company plans to provide the robot via a franchise system in global markets, such as in Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, at a later stage.
The company opened premium coffee shops two and a half years ago. It now has four such traditional cafes in Singapore.