Technology Evaluation of Collaborative Robotic Baristas in Local Coffee Shops

愚马是一个完善的餐厅式咖啡业务在温尼伯，马尼托巴省多个地点。该公司计划在其餐厅流程中引入机器人和自动化，以帮助提高效率，提高生产力，并解决因COVID-19大流行而导致的劳动力短缺问题。虽然工业机器人以其重载荷和精度将继续在工业应用中蓬勃发展，但我们将在日常生活中看到更多的协作和社交智能机器人，包括医疗保健，食品服务，物料搬运等。Fools & Horses正计划在他们的咖啡餐厅中评估和实施机器人和自动化，让完全集成的协作机器人在酿造和订单履行过程中与人类一起工作。这一概念将大大减少每个地点所需的员工数量，同时保持公司面向客户的环境。该公司正在与RRC Polytech合作，评估、设计、集成和实施协作机器人咖啡师解决方案。RRC理工将利用学院在机器人编程、人机界面（HMI）、软件开发、机械设计和制造方面的现有资产和能力来交付这个项目。虽然愚马将继续专注于他们的核心咖啡业务，但该公司将通过RRC Polytech和其他当地组织获得当地支持，以实施该项目并长期维护设备。这个项目的成功实施将有助于大大降低投资傻瓜和马的机器人咖啡师的风险。机器人系统的部署将节省成本，提高生产力，并有能力管理劳动力短缺。RRC理工团队期待着将他们在机器人和自动化方面的知识扩展到食品服务行业的应用中。所获得的知识将有利于学生和研究人员的项目，并在未来的研究活动有用。

Fools & Horses is a well-established restaurant-style coffee business with multiple locations in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The company plans to introduce robotics and automation within their restaurant processes to help drive efficiency, improve productivity and address labour shortage problems that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. While industrial robots, with their heavy payload and precision, will continue to thrive in industrial applications, we will see more collaborative and socially intelligent robots in our day-to-day lives, including healthcare, food services, materials handling, etc. Fools & Horses is planning to evaluate and implement robotics and automation within their coffee restaurants, with fully integrated collaborative robots working alongside humans in the brewing and order fulfilment processes. This concept will drastically reduce the number of employees required at each location while maintaining the company's customer-facing environment. The company is collaborating with RRC Polytech to evaluate, design, integrate and implement collaborative robotic barista solutions. RRC Polytech will capitalize on the College's existing assets and capabilities in robotic programming, human-machine interface (HMI), software development, mechanical design and manufacturing to deliver this project. While Fools & Horses will continue to focus on their core coffee business, the company will have access to local support for implementing this project and maintaining the equipment in a long-term through RRC Polytech and other local organizations. Successful implementation of this project will assist significantly in reducing the risk of investing in robotic baristas by Fools & Horses. Deployment of the robotic systems will result in cost savings, productivity improvement and an ability to manage labour shortage. The RRC Polytech team is looking forward to expanding their knowledge in robotics and automation to applications in the food services industry. The knowledge gained will be beneficial to the students and researchers on the project, and useful in future research engagements.