It’s one thing to go a traditional coffee shop and have a barista give you a smile and write your name on a cup. It’s another to go to Clouffee & Tea in Las Vegas and have an egg-shaped robot train its machine vision on you and digitally say, “Hello!” Matt Casella, president of Richtech Robotics, is confident consumers will be into it.
Matt Casella, president of Richtech Robotics
“He doesn’t sound like an ominous robot,” he said in an interview. “He’s friendly.”
The Richtech robot is named ADAM, which is fitting as he bears a resemblance to the droid EVE in WALL-E. And if that movie proved anything, it’s that people love robots.
Casella knows this. He and his design team spent years fine-tuning ADAM in a way in which it could function like a human yet retain its robot essence. And not just for the cute factor.
“There’s a thing called the uncanny valley, which is when people sometimes are put off by robots that look too much like humans,” he said. “Adam looks human enough in that he looks like a being that you can talk to. But he’s a robot.”
Clouffee & Tea opened on Feb. 9 and Casella is pleased with ADAM’s hustle. “He’s serving hundreds of guests daily,” he said. Right now the menu includes Boba tea, coffees, and desserts. ADAM’s up for employee of the month. But he still needs Mom and Dad around.
“We still have a couple staff members in the store to operate the restaurant,” he said. “That’s a winning formula for us.”
And the formula isn’t just limited to coffee shops.
“We’re focused on robots in all areas of the service sector, including restaurants and hotels,” he said. “We can help operators set up the experience they want.”
How does this all work? You may have guessed it. AI.
“We use AI through NVIDIA’s Isaac Sim platform for everything from training to machine vision, which allows ADAM to identify customers that come up and interact with him and recognize the equipment and ingredients needs to make the drinks,” Casella said. “The customer can place an order through ADAM and see ADAM prep and serve the drink. It’s exciting. It’s bringing AI into the physical world. That’s at the core of what we do.”
The development of ADAM for the shop — with the word clouffee being a blend of cloud and coffee — is part of a transition the company undertook last year, going from primarily selling robots to leasing them. The company, which went public in late 2023, added 20 robots to Ghost Kitchens Americas restaurants inside Walmart stores last summer.
Richtech has deployed more than 300 robot solutions across the country, in restaurants, retail stores, hotels, healthcare facilities, casinos, senior live homes, and factories. Along with Walmart, partners include the Texas Rangers, Golden Corral, Hilton, Sodexo, and Boyd Gaming.
Casella is clear that Clouffee isn’t some precocious experiment. The company intends to scale it.
“Our plan is to continue to roll out these locations,” he said. “Moving forward, we’re looking at things like kiosks to allow for payments to be made by the guests themselves. And we are looking at doing more with the food side of the menu. We’re going to continue to refine the operations and develop new stores quickly.”
