A robot barista has started work at a cafe in Tokyo – and what’s more, the high-tech helper has halved the price of a cup of coffee.
Japanese company HIS opened ‘ Hen na Cafe’, meaning Strange Cafe, in the country’s capital Thursday. The robot, which goes by the name Sawyer, is composed of an arm with multiple degrees of freedom and a tablet computer for a face.
In footage posted online, the machine can be seen whizzing and whirring as it picks up a cup placed on a holder by customers. It then tips already ground beans into a filter before placing it on a rack. Steaming hot water then flows through the filter from above, making a fresh cup of robo-coffee.
Confirming many people’s fears about automation, HIS says this fully-automated system has been installed to reduce the number of human workers needed to run the cafe, according to AP.
