Beijing robot café makes 202 coffees in an hour

An order appears on a screen at Galaxy SOHO in Beijing's Chaoyang District, and a robotic arm takes the cup and moves it to the collection point. The staffless store made 202 coffees in an hour on its opening day in a bid for a Guinness record, and Yangguang Net, the online edition of China Central Television, reported that it set the record. It is a 24-hour unmanned café opened on the 16th by JD.com's beverage brand Qixian Coffee.

When customers select a menu item at the kiosk, a robot grinds and brews the beans before filling the cup. Cold drinks are ready in about 10 seconds, while hot drinks take about 15 seconds; the entire process is completed within 30 seconds. The equipment is designed to produce up to 1,800 cups continuously, and customers can order not only coffee but also tea, sparkling water and probiotic fruit drinks day and night.

Speed is not the only focus of the automation. Customers can set the sweetness and coffee strength themselves on a scale from 1 to 100, while the production process is displayed in real time on a large screen in the store. Qixian Coffee said it had automated production by combining JD's AI technology with technology for controlling physical machinery.

The people most directly affected are customers looking to buy drinks late at night and shift workers. The company says it can provide 24-hour service without on-site staff, reduce the repeated training required when employees change and limit variations in flavor caused by differences in how people prepare drinks, while also lowering labor costs.

Qixian Coffee was first unveiled at a technology event in September last year and set a target of investing about 10 billion yuan to expand to 10,000 stores within three years. It expanded to Harbin in January this year and Tianjin in March, but that target remains a plan. The change currently being observed is not simply a single-store record: an unmanned operating model linking ordering, production and delivery is being tested for expansion beyond Beijing.