She is a barista with a very strong arm.
And, from yesterday, “Ella”, Singapore’s first fully automated robot barista, has been serving customers their caffeine fixes at an unmanned outlet at CT Hub 2 in Lavender.
Crown Group, which launched the outlet under its food and beverage arm Crown Coffee, said it was developed in an effort to push automation and reduce physical interactions in the light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ella, named after Crown Group founder and chief executive Keith Tan’s wife, served a range of hot drinks to Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling and members of the media at a launch event last Friday.
In a speech at the event, Ms Low, who is also Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth, emphasised the importance of digitalisation and automation in navigating the pandemic, and zoomed in on Ella as a solution that creates opportunity from chaos.
“While Covid-19 has severely impacted our businesses and economy, it has also created the…
