Miso Robotics is partnering with restaurant chain Panera Bread to test its latest robot, a coffee maker that can brew the perfect cup of coffee.
The Pasadena, California-based company said its CookRight Coffee line uses artificial intelligence to monitor key coffee metrics such as volume, temperature and time data, and combines these with predictive analytics to make a quality cup of coffee.
Missouri-based Panera is Miso Robotics’ first company partner to evaluate and test the system.
Miso Robotics said the CookRight Coffee system at Panera is designed to improve the coffee monitoring process, eliminating the need for manual checks of coffee urns and providing easy and accurate insights into coffee volume and temperature. This allows employees to brew a new batch at precisely the right time so that coffee stays fresh and hot.
CookRight Coffee also supports Panera’s Unlimited Sip Club membership, which allows subscribers to drink unlimited coffee and tea for $8.99 a month.
“CookRight Coffee is a game changer when it comes to convenience and operational efficiency, and we are extremely excited to take our coffee station into the future with Miso Robotics,” said Panera Chief Digital Officer George Hanson in a statement.
CookRight Coffee is Miso’s newest iteration of its CookRight system and is engineered to evolve as it learns its environment and adds new enhancements over time.
“In order to meet the needs of the rapidly evolving restaurant industry, we want our products to come to market quickly and maintain a high level of flexibility,” added Miso Robotics CEO Mike Bell in a statement. “When we announced the CookRight platform in 2021, we knew we could apply it to various stations at a restaurant as the product developed, and we saw an immediate need for it at the coffee station.”
Miso Robotics is primarily funded by individual investors and has about 18,000 shareholders. The company has raised more than $50 million in crowdfunding to date and is currently in its Series E round, which kicked off with a market valuation of $500 million.
Miso Robotics’ other AI-driven technologies include the Flippy frying robot, Sippy automatic beverage dispenser and CookRight, which monitors food safety and standards in real time. It also is testing an automated tortilla chips maker at Chipotle Mexican Grill.
