Wirelessly Operated Coffee Machines in RoboBar
Thanks to the collaboration with BSH home appliances company, RICAIP Testbed Prague automated solutions have penetrated other areas outside the industry – gastronomy and smart home while leveraging the Industry 4.0 principles. It combines collaborative robotics with Wi-Fi-enabled Siemens coffee machines operated and controlled by Home Connect technology. This setting enriches the collaborative robotic station – RoboBar in the RICAIP Testbed Prague – to a new level with expanded functionality and offerings of beverages.
The coffee is served by two collaborative robots that can serve also other drinks. The entire workplace uses industrial components providing a stable platform for the software implementation. RoboBar covers a large number of advanced technologies. HP Multijet Fusion 3D printing technology has been used for manufacturing several different parts including the gripper on the robotic arm that can handle the cups with coffee and glasses. The control and visualisation of the RoboBar and its ordering system utilises the latest technologies from the range of Siemens automation solutions, allowing for a faster and more effective development process.
Coffee Preparation
- Selecting a favourite coffee through a picture via a touch button remotely by tablet. An application for controlling the operation of two installed coffee machines simultaneously via the Siemens Home Connect cloud system. It queues orders and allows everyone to track the status of their order.
- Through Home Connect, the collaborative robot is connected to the coffee machine and the coffee preparation process can started.
- Interconnected communication of multiple devices with the possibility to connect other home appliances via an automated platform.
- The data about the ordering, most popular types of coffee as well as the energy consumption is monitored and transferred to a database specifically developed for this type of application.
- AI-based camera algorithms can recognize the position of objects and human hands in 3D, which helps to plan the simultaneous movements of two robots accurately and safely serves the ordered coffee on a propriate serving place.
- It’s possible to monitor the workload of coffee machines, preferences in orders, and plan maintenance, which is predicted based on the data obtained from the RoboBar during its operation.
- The human assistance is needed for refilling supplies and maintenance.
- Thanks to smart appliances from Siemens, the robot operations can be further extended to prepare a croissant in a smart oven or schedule dishwashing in a smart dishwasher.
- The database application allows not only to display current values and historical trends but also to create behavioural models, digital twins, and estimation of the causes of any deterioration in energy efficiency during operation.
Technology used
- Siemens S7-1500 controller
- View of Things (ordering system on tablet)
- WinCC Unified (TV visualisation of the RoboBar state)
- Wirelessly operated Siemens Coffee Machine
- Siemens Home Connect technology for coffee machine operations
- Ordering a coffee is done by first contacting the Home Connect cloud server, which, in turn, connects to the coffee machine and starts the coffee-making process.
- Other Siemens appliances with Home Connect are used in the back area (oven, hob, refrigerator)