China Foundation Newspaper | China‘s AI curiosity! The Vertical Evolution of Drinking Robots
A group of pioneers of science and innovation is writing a legend on the “20+8” industrial track in Shenzhen. China Fund News, in conjunction with Shenzhen Private Equity Association and SZSE SME Service Center, has launched “Bay Area Creators Speak・Discovering Unicorns” to decode the hardcore breakthrough of science and technology creation power, and to look into the forward-looking potential of the capital wave.
And ENO Robotics is the dazzling presence in this wave of science and innovation! In the field of robotic intelligent retailing, Anno Robotics, with its self-developed matrix of drinking robots, is transforming the scientific and technological imagination of “AI + Robotics” into a life service that is within reach.
Niu Si Ruo, Reporter of China Foundation News
In 2025, when humanoid robots are frequently on hot searches, commercial service robots have quietly started a “silent revolution”.
In the field of intelligent retailing, Anno Robotics, with its self-developed beverage mixing robot matrix, is transforming the “AI+robotics” technological imagination into a life service that is within reach.
Walking into this enterprise founded in 2017, the composite space of about 3,000 square meters is a rendition of “hardcore” intellectual manufacturing: the left side of the robotic arm production line area sparks flying, the right side of the coffee integration area is wafting the aroma of freshly ground.
Huang Huang, the founder of Anuo Robotics, held a cup of robot-pulled coffee and showed the reporter: “It takes only 90 seconds from order to production, and each consumer can experience customized coffee pulling and printing patterns.”
From the desktop-level robotic arm core components research and development, to the commercial scene landing, Anuo robot chose a “vertical penetration” evolutionary path. Its self-developed high-precision robotic arm not only breaks through the traditional application scenarios, but also quickly adapts to the needs of coffee, milk tea, ice cream and other new tea drinks production through modular design. This “technology platform + scene plug-in” model, so that Anuo robot in two years to realize the output value doubled, and overseas to more than 70 countries.
When the industry is discussing the general robot, Anno Robotics chose to “do a meter deep, dig a foot deep” in the beverage field. Huang Huang told the reporter, “We hope to become the head of consumer beverage robots in the future.”
This issue of “Bay Area Creators Speak - Discovering the Unicorn” column synchronized with the video record of the research activities, the video is as follows, for the benefit of readers.
China Foundation News: Why did Ano Robotics first launch a beverage robot product in the smart retail sector?
Huang Huang: In the early days of our company, we made products in the category of robotic arms, which were first applied in the field of education. When we were looking for application scenarios, we noticed that the future space of unmanned retail and smart retail in commercial application scenarios is very large. And now the labor cost is getting higher and higher, so in 2019 we did a lot of research and development in this field of smart retail, and launched some automated solution application products. The products are very popular in the market after launching.
China Fund News: How can such products meet the personalized needs of consumers?
Huang Huang: For example, for the coffee robot flower pulling technology, we use camera vision to capture and recognize the movements of the flower puller, and then form these moving lines into coordinate points, so that the machine can learn, train, and use them on our robot arm. At the same time, we added the function of flower pulling printing, to meet the needs of guests to customize, and increase the sense of interaction.
In addition, we can also “thousands of people, thousands of faces”, on-demand customization + multi-scene applications. In the process of exporting our products, we will fine-tune our products according to the different needs of our customers, so as to meet local tastes; considering the differences in voltage, language and payment methods in overseas markets, we have also made localized adaptations.
China Foundation News: What is the proportion of orders from overseas markets?
Huang Huang: The ratio of our domestic and overseas orders is already 1:1, and our products are currently sold to more than 100 cities in China and more than 70 countries and regions around the world. At present, coffee robots, milk tea robots and other robotic ready-made beverage products have become the main products of Anno Robotics, accounting for about 60% of the total revenue.
China Foundation News: The completion of refined movements depends on the precision of the robotic arm, how did ENO Robotics complete the technological breakthrough?
Huang Huang: First of all, we independently developed a high-precision six-axis robotic arm and control system. For the precision of the arm‘s structure, we will produce the required parts through higher precision CNC machine tools. Secondly, the harmonic reducer we use can also ensure that the motor through the deceleration, where the gap of the zero difference is very small, repeat positioning accuracy is relatively high, can reach plus or minus 0.3mm precision. Again, through the independent research and development of the robot control system and algorithm platform: support for multi-axis linkage interpolation control algorithm, support for a variety of intelligent interactive control methods, we can make the robotic arm to form a closed-loop, to achieve very accurate control. Finally, a series of core technologies to realize the robot intelligent unmanned retail automation operation by integrating advanced vision capture technology and recognition system, adopting modular design, multiple core modules developed independently, equipped with sensitive sensors, process key technology, artificial intelligence algorithms (machine learning and training), Internet of Things (IoT) technology, human-computer interaction, cloud management platform and so on. Now, all products and technologies of ANNO Robotics are completely independent, which also builds up a technical barrier for ANNO Robotics.
China Foundation News: Will you introduce some new technologies in the future?
Huang Huang: We are now developing the integration of digital human and product ordering system. Through the voice, the camera to recognize some of the movements of the human face and mouth shape, so as to determine the needs of the customer, targeted recommendations to the customer. This added AI voice assistance function of the product, we expect about six months to a year to market.
China Foundation News: Now that the categories of robots are very diverse, what is the next step in the product layout of Anno Robotics?
Huang Huang: Our current customer base is mainly B-side customers in the retail field, to achieve batch and scale production of products. In the future, in addition to the beverage track, we may also do some research in catering. In addition, we may also layout humanoid robots, but not the current humanoid robots that can walk, run and jump, mainly landing in the actual application scenarios. For example, we are currently a separate robotic arm to make coffee, and in the future the robot appearance may tend to be humanoid.
China Foundation News: There are already many giant official announcements to join the robot track, how do you see the future competition?
Huang Huang: There are many types of robots, from traditional industrial robots, to humanoid robots that are hot now, and some special robots. The main application scenario for Anno Robotics‘ products is in smart retail. Even if the giant enterprises are involved, it is still necessary to cut into a certain application scene, that is, the track selection problem.
First of all, we need to consider whether the application scene is broad, whether the future can be mass production. Secondly, it is the technical level. A product needs to be iterated until it is mature, and then go to the consumer. Finally, the product in the actual application of the scene will still have a lot of problems, whether consumers like is also very important. Therefore, when giant enterprises do these things, they also need such a process, and the road is still quite long.
China Fund News: I understand that you chose Shenzhen from the beginning of your business, why did you make such a choice?
Huang Huang: At the beginning of the venture, Shenzhen has a very good incubation environment and policy support. Anovo Robotics belongs to the category of science and innovation enterprises, and when we started our business in the early stage, we applied for funding from the Shenzhen Science and Innovation Commission (SZSIC). The Shenzhen government gives real money to entrepreneurs, which is a very important first step for us.
In addition, Shenzhen has a very favorable supply chain advantage, the whole process of R&D, procurement and assembly is very convenient, and prototypes can be made very quickly. Our company is located in an intelligent manufacturing park, and there are upstream and downstream supporting enterprises upstairs and downstairs, which benefits from Shenzhen‘s “upstream and downstream” model.
China Foundation News: After nearly a decade of entrepreneurship, which keywords can describe this experience for you?
Huang Huang: The first keyword is interest. I like to research and develop robotic arms, and from time to time to study, so interest is very important. The second keyword is persistence. We encountered a lot of resistance in the process of entrepreneurship, and there will be the idea of giving up, but ultimately chose to stick to the original intention, must give the product and technology to our consumers, bring a good experience, and do a good job with the product. The third keyword is innovation. Our products have been constantly iterating to meet the new demands put forward by our customers.
In the future, we also hope to become the head company of beverage robots. At the same time, we will broaden our product categories, so that our robots can be used in all aspects of people‘s lives and serve the public.
