At IBIE 2025, Coperion launched the Unifiller HIRO Robotic Cake Decorator, a robotic arm designed for high-volume bakeries to perform precise tasks such as writing, drizzling, and creating custom designs.
Decorating sweet bakery specialties, either cakes or donuts, muffins or pies, is an invaluable opportunity to create not just a beautiful result, a product that reflects artistry, but also a memorable experience. It’s a powerful tool and a joyful part of sweets. This finishing step, however, is painstakingly labor-intensive when done manually, directly proportional to the intricacy of the result.
With the Unifiller HIRO Cake Decorator, Coperion aims to help preserve the craftsmanship while automating the process. To this end, a robot was developed to execute the vision designed by the creator of the artwork, while taking over the effort of applying the decorative elements and doing so with perfect consistency in results. The solution also supports cake makers struggling with labor issues, especially for repetitive, difficult tasks. The robotic system has six degrees of freedom in its movements, so that even the sides of the cake can be embellished. Staubli provides the robot’s arm and its ‘brain’, while Unifiller’s team developed the user interface and the UX design that allows the user to enter decorative elements that are interpreted by the robot as a set of code that it can use to move accordingly.
“Food is fashion. Food is seasonal. You might be working on a product at full capacity on one side of the plant, and other parts may be running at lower capacity, or use more human labor. But, when capacity needs to be boosted elsewhere, the robot can travel to the new ‘hot spot’.”
Derek Lanoville, Product Development Technologist,
R&D Manager for Unifiller technologies
HIRO can decorate the top and the side of a cake and can be used flexibly in operations of various capacities. The robot is adaptive regarding the size and placement of the cake arriving at the decorating station. These are all parameters it establishes for each cake, using its built-in vision technology. It’s also adaptive to its own workspace: it comes on wheels and can be easily moved to be placed on different machines, unlike other robotic solutions, which are generally bolted to the floor. The floors are not always perfectly level in all bakeries, and conveyors can run in different directions (including uphill, downhill, slightly tilted, etc.), or purposely run without straight lines; the designers of the HIRO system took these factors into consideration. Once the HIRO arrives at the new station, the equipment is leveled without having to disconnect it, a calibrating operation that can be carried out by any factory worker. Derek Lanoville, Product Development Technologist and R&D Manager for Unifiller technologies, explains: “The robot has a range-finding laser on the arm, which it uses to find three points of reference on a pre-established set of geometry for calibration, giving it the plane in which it’s going to work. Its vision system then validates that all the data it expected to find, was correctly identified, before the robot adjusts its program to match that plane.” Using codes made up of unique sets of symbols for the robot to find means that the operator can use one robot in several working stations. This is particularly helpful when different lines are running different kinds of desserts. “Food is fashion. Food is seasonal. You might be working on a product at full capacity on one side of the plant, and other parts may be running at lower capacity, or use more human labor. But, when capacity needs to be boosted elsewhere, the robot can travel to the new ‘hot spot’,” Unifiller’s specialist adds. The design team worked on making the HIRO universally easy to use and not have any language barrier or need for a particular staff member who has specialized training; this is a feature that can be seen from the setup stage. “This robot fills in that void of talent in decorating cakes perfectly. Skilled labor required for this task is hard to find and train, since it involves squeezing material from the pastry bag for long hours at a time. “ Lanoville highlights.
Xs and Os
The HIRO robot can use virtually anything that can be applied with a pastry bag as a decorating medium, as well as combining formulations of different colors and consistencies to paint the picture it’s been given, at high speed. Caramel drizzle was used for demonstrating purposes at the IBIE Coperion stand, for example. When drawing the outline of an object, the thickness of the line is strictly controlled by the opening of the outlet, the pumping pressure and the speed of the movement to ensure the design is executed correctly and consistently. Programming the nozzle to dwell in certain spots creates effects similar to paint brushing. Using this effect with a buttercream of any whipped topping product, which has been dyed green, can create leaves, for example. To recreate handcrafted decoration styles, the robot uses decorating tips that are similar to those used on manual pastry bags. This also makes it easy for bakers to upgrade to automated decorating, since they already know which stainless steel tip produces a certain effect. Usually, the materials used the most for decorations are fudge icings, whipped toppings and buttercream icings.
“Through the Connect Advisor Remote Services, we can share files, pictures and wiring diagrams, all in an effort to remove waiting time and quickly get the customers back up and running, for any issues they might encounter.”
Kevin Geye, Director of Aftermarket Business Development for Coperion
The system’s decorating capacity can vary significantly according to the size of the cake, the complexity of the design and the number and consistency of decorating materials. Coperion’s Unifiller specialists recommend designs with fewer embellishments when speed is of the essence. “The more starts and stops a pattern has, the slower the execution of the pattern,” explains Lanoville; which is why a pattern such as “XOXO” will take longer to ‘draw’ than a continuous outline of a stylized flower, for example. For even greater decorating capacities, multiple HIRO units can work side by side, as the software will allow them to synchronize and share tasks while avoiding collision at all times. An algorithm finds the most effective way of dividing decorating tasks between robots, in a collaborative effort guided by the vision system, which acts not unlike an orchestra conductor telling each member of the group what to do and when: “Any design essentially comprises shapes and lines; an image can be broken down into the elements that make it and, once connected, will give the planned aesthetic. This is how multiple robots can work together,” the specialist explains. Dividing tasks does not only mean finding the most efficient path assignment, but also establishing how materials of various viscosities are best applied, so that the patterns are not altered, even if a material accidentally loses a small drop. Because, that could put a tear on an otherwise smiley face design, for example. This is where experience comes in.
Given the wide variety of application tools, the breadth of materials that can be used and the multitude of designs that can be achieved, the Unifiller robotic arm can be setup before delivery to match the bakery’s work. It is equipped with the correct attachments, decorating nozzles, and the most effective pumps for the materials used. “Food may be fashion, but technically, the decorating process is variations along the same general lines. Just like a shirt is still a shirt in different decades of fashion,” Lanoville observes. This makes it easy to adapt the robot to any kind of decorating requirements. Even cake sizes tend not to vary much, given the constraints coming from the physics of baking, regardless of the size of the oven. This is why there are not that many limits when it comes to automated cake decorating, and any kind of customization can be delivered. With the HIRO robot, Coperion has
developed a standard solution that only needs small amounts of customization to make different products unique – and still have a comprehensive array of available choices in terms of designs, the specialist observes.
“The robot has a range-finding laser on the arm, which it uses to find three points of reference on a pre-established set of geometry for calibration, giving it the plane in which it’s going to work. Its vision system then validates that all the data it expected to find was correctly identified, before the robot adjusts its program to match that plane.”
Derek Lanoville, Product Development Technologist,
R&D Manager for Unifiller technologies
Sanitation
As the six-axis robot’s joints move the arm, a small amount of air pressure prevents dust from accessing any part of the system. Moreover, the HIRO was designed to be reliable in humid environments and when exposed to wash-down chemicals, to prevent downtimes.
The robot was built with IP67 waterproof certification1, meaning it can be completely washed down using a pressure-washing system, to ensure sanitation standards. Its mobility also makes it tmuch easier to clean: it can quickly be wheeled to a washing area and hosed down.
Maintenance and remote support
To optimize maintenance, Coperion also worked on developing remote services, to be able to connect customers to its technical experts who can inspect the equipment and quickly address any issues. The Connect Advisor Remote Services were also a new launch at IBIE 2025; they use RealWear and proprietary workflows to facilitate remote support. “On our side, we see the problem, capture and share a screenshot; we can annotate that to help the operator with the steps they need to make and with troubleshooting issues that need to be addressed. We can share files, pictures and wiring diagrams, all in a seamless effort to remove waiting time and quickly get the customers back up and running when they encounter issues,” explains Kevin Geye, Director of Aftermarket Business Development for Coperion. “The platform instantly connects a person with a person, which means each bakery will receive support in their time zone and language, for their specific technical issue – or help identify the issue, respectively.
The HIRO robot is ultimately intended to make cake decorating successful and easy, while bakers are still very much in charge of design and operating decisions. It is human creativity that will create the heartwarming decorations (flawlessly applied) for any occasion, after all.