A coffee bar in downtown Singapore, Ella aka the barista is busy at making perfect coffee every time for it's customers. Interestingly, Ella is not a human but a fully autonomous six-axis robot. This robot was named after the wife of Crown Coffee's CEO and founder Keith Tan.
Ella uses various Intel technology to perform it's day to day operations. This robot receives orders via an online app then makes the coffee and finally sends the notifications to customers when the coffee is ready. It can also serve the coffee, bill and charge the credit card.
It all started nearly two years back when Tan spotted a group of Intel Singapore employees having lunch at his shop. He approached them and after a brief conversation, the group introduced him with another group of Intel employee, this how it all began. As Tan states:
I have plenty of gratitude to Intel, as they helped me realize this idea. They listened to me, understood the problems I was trying to solve and partnered with me to design and develop prototypes.
Ella solves many of the challenges that a coffee shop owner find tedious. Apart from serving guaranteed quality and consistency, Ella frees up labor which can be used to perform other tasks like greeting customers or cleaning. At a time of COVID-19 pandemic, customers also feels safe as the robot operates in a sealed chamber.
Witnessing the success, Tan and his team are planning to scale the solution to 40 other locations across Singapore, then to Japan and rest of the World.
Ella runs on an Intel Xeon and Intel Core processors along with an Intel Movidius vision processing unit to perform its operations.
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