When Nik Wright and Yulin Chu helped create a robot that dispenses frozen yogurt, they did not expect their creation to be selling in places like the Pentagon, Houston Space Center and McCarran International Airport. Now, the company, Reis & Irvy’s, has re-designed their robot to better serve the public and upped the technology to improve the future of frozen yogurt.
Their two-barrel frozen yogurt machine has a flavor burst system that actually allows a total of seven flavors such as chocolate, cotton candy, buttered almond, strawberry and more. However, what is frozen yogurt without toppings? The Robot has six topping dispensers for hard-shell candy and will continue to dispense 245 times until it has to be refilled.
It was not always this simple to have a frozen yogurt-dispensing machine. Chu and Wright spent a lot of time developing the design, movements and material for the robot.
“We’ve really designed this robot from scratch,” said Chu, but when it comes to their robot, Chu and Wright said they are constantly trying to improve it, and increase the telemetry and intelligence.
Once their frozen yogurt machine had taken action, they soon started redesigning their original model. They wanted their new model to be three times smaller than their old one, yet still contain all the technology and design within.
“We worked very hard integrating everything and utilizing every inch of space, so that not only could we make it highly intelligent, we could increase our capacity, increase the novelty, and keep a 15 square footprint,” said Wright. “We can go into almost any location and utilize space that they may not have been utilizing before.”
They have also put sensors throughout the unit to keep track of the temperatures in the robot.
“We’re serving dairy, and it’s highly important to us to make sure we’re always utilizing our food safety methods and keeping them at the forefront of our thought process and design process,” Wright said. “So, Yulin and I put sensors throughout the unit…That’s something we’ve never had before.”
The sensors allow a franchisee or operator to keep track of the barrel temperature and hopper.
“We can report on the backend and provide this service to the franchisee, so they can remotely monitor the condition of the machine,” Chu said.
Both Wright and Chu said they were proud at how well all the individual parts work together. They designed proprietary software that runs the entire unit. All the different components are able to talk to each other and utilize one core software to make it a seamless operation.
This frozen yogurt operation has surfaced at airports, hospitals, corporate offices and malls, but one of the most impactful has been at a children’s hospital. At first, Wright and Chu said they were really just trying to prove out a concept at the hospital, and doctors or nurses would send down children to test out their frozen yogurt robot. One day, after a surgery, a child rolled out with towers, medical equipment and six doctors accompanying him.
“They brought him down to get a product from my robot, and for 60 seconds that kid was hands up on the glass, and watched that robot,” said Wright. “He forgot about all the other crazy stuff that was going on his life, and just had the biggest smile. It meant a lot to us that something we had created could bring even a little bit of joy to someone going through something most of us couldn’t even imagine.”
In order to keep people smiling and machines filled, Chu and Wright developed an intense maintenance and cleaning strategy.
There is a group of franchisees who undergo two days of intensive training on how to service and maintain the robot, food safety and sanitization policies, and finally, they receive their food handler’s permit.
“We put a lot of redundancies, and checks and balance in the machine,” said Wright. “For instance, if someone is not cleaning their machine within a certain time period the machine will actually shut down, and send us and the franchisee an alert that the robot hasn’t been cleaned.”
They also send out a quality control expert to ensure operators are utilizing the machine correctly and in a safe manner.
Although the design, technology and maintenance methods have been thoroughly thought out, Chu and Wright believe the experience and product is the pinnacle of it all. People enjoy walking up, watching the robot, seeing the animated videos playing and finally, tasting the product.
“We observe so many people’s reactions from their excitement and surprise,” said Chu. “Their facial expressions are what really continue this immense service to the general public.”
Chu and Wright said they hope their research and innovation continues to impact the public. Although they will always be improving the design and getting feedback from the market, they hope their current robot meets the public’s expectations.
“We have made every effort possible to cut no corners and ensure we’re delivering a high quality product that our customers are going to love and come back time and time again,” Wright said.
This may not be the only type of ‘bot’ the public will see from them. They hinted at applying their robot techniques to different food and beverage items, so they can continue to serve while utilizing their robot.
“It’s top secret at the moment,” said Wright. “But we’ve got some really exciting robots in the works.”
