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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Cheetah Mobile

Cheetah Mobile’s FANBOT is a Vending Machine on Wheels

This week, Chinese tech company Cheetah Mobile announced the international availability of its FANBOT mobile vending machine robot.

The FANBOT is a squat, self-driving robot that can carry up to 66 different items including snacks, drinks and other goods in its cargo bay. From the FANBOT promotional materials, it looks like there’s a touchscreen for ordering and shoppers can use a mobile phone to pay.

FANBOT drives itself around high-traffic areas such as malls, stores, gyms, hotel lobbies and airports, and will identify and approach potential customers. So, exactly how does FANBOT know whom to approach? According to the press release:

Through its proprietary multi-sensor fusion environment perception system, the FANBOT uses biometric technology, not facial recognition, to identify potential customers by detecting people’s gender, age range and emotions within a 5-meter radius. Once identified, the FANBOT actively approaches the customer to promote products, engage in voice interactions and complete cash-less transactions.

Huh. Interesting. Exactly how FANBOT picks customers and what biometric data it is using wasn’t immediately explained. We reached out to Cheetah Mobile to find out more details. UPDATE: Cheetah Mobile emailed us the following:

Body temperature is one of the key biometric features the robot is looking for. People of different genders and age groups have different body temperatures; and people that are happy and relaxed also have different body temperatures than those who are down and anxious. Voice is another one. The FANBOT can detect the vocal features of different demographics: men, women, seniors, teenagers, children, etc.

The FANBOT’s multi-sensor fusion environment perception system can detect people’s body temperature, voice and other biometric features within a 5-meter radius, and use algorithms to determine whom to approach.

For example, in a high-traffic area, if one man and a family of three are walking around the robot, it will automatically detect the family of three as the more likely potential customers and approach them instead of the man. Or, if the FANBOT carries beauty products, it’s more likely to approach female customers than male.

FANBOT is already in use in China, and the company says that the sales volume is four times that of a stationary vending machine, selling one beverage roughly every 110 seconds.

We seem to be on the cusp of a mobility trend in food vending. Earlier this week, Yo-Kai Express revealed that it is working on a mobile vending machine that will cruise around serving up hot bowls of ramen. And earlier this month, BIB Technologies unveiled the Automato, which is an electric mobile Automat carrying cubbies full of food.

For indoor settings, it doesn’t make sense to put a big, hulking vending machine like Yo-Kai’s on wheels. That would get pretty obtrusive pretty quick. But something the size of FANBOT actually does make a lot of sense. Making small vending more mobile and bringing snacks to people idling in hotel lobbies and such could really catch on.

OrionStar Launched a New Coffee Robot in China

OrionStar, the robotics arm of Chinese company Cheetah Mobile, jumped into the automated coffee making space last week with the debut of its Robotic Coffee Master.

The Robotic Coffee Master combines two six-axis robotic arms, computer vision, and artificial intelligence to replicate the complex brewing techniques of human baristas such as curves and spirals. Right now the robot makes pour over coffees, using its robotic arms to do things like get the grounds into the filter, set the filter on top of the carafe and pour hot water over the grounds. The Robotic Coffee Master can make a cup of coffee in three minutes.

Unlike other robot coffee makers like Cafe X or Truebird or Briggo, the Robotic Coffee Master is not a full-on enclosed kiosk. Rather it is a squat-looking robot that can be set up in more open environments.

Perhaps once seen as more of a novelty, robotic coffee services could find renewed purpose in a post-pandemic world (whenever that will be). Robots can work around the clock without a break, but also remove a human vector of disease transmission to provide a contactless transaction for customer’s morning coffee.

As noted earlier, the automated coffee space already has a number of players like Cafe X, Truebird, and Briggo here in the U.S., but also international competitors such as Rozum Cafe, MontyCafe, FIBBEE, and Crown Coffee.

The good news is that a lot of people drink a lot of coffee all over the world, so there is plenty of opportunity for everyone involved. In China alone, the coffee market is expected to hit roughly $42.3 billion.

In a phone interview this week, Vincent Li, Head of Global Marketing and Sales, Robotic Solution at Cheetah Mobile, told me that his company is focusing on the Asian market right now. The Robotic Coffee Master sells for roughly $50,000 and the company has already sold 200 units.