Sharpa brings robot-handmade ice cream to Shanghai

North, Sharpa's humanoid robot, is gearing up its ice cream prep skills ahead of Dairy Queen's new store opening in Shanghai, China.
Here’s a preview of what to expect on launch day this August.

A useful robot performing a real-life shift

  • For the first time, Sharpa North steps behind the counter of a real kitchen, completing a full shift at a DQ store in Shanghai while serving real customers, real orders, and real ice cream.
  • Each order is a long-horizon sequence of 50 to 60 consecutive manipulation steps, performed end to end without cuts
  • North is fully backward compatible with existing infrastructure: he works inside an operating store, using existing equipment, ingredients, and process, unmodified.

Difficult manipulation tasks, performed without a glitch

  • North must repeatedly complete complex tasks that call on human-level dexterity, adaptation capabilities, and embodied short-term memory.
  • Succeeding end to end, live, in public demands a level of robustness and reliability far beyond a staged demo.

Securing the metal ring to the cup & Blending the Blizzard

  • The metal ring is held against the paper cup by thumb and index finger throughout blending — a level of contact control that's difficult to achieve with grippers or low-DoF hands.
  • Force feedback governs how hard the hand grips and moves throughout the blend.

Opening the cabinet door

  • The cabinet door uses a narrow handle — a standard industry fixture, not retrofitted for robot use.
  • North's hand has to be close enough to a human hand in shape and size to operate handles built for people, not robots.

Memorizing the topping distribution steps

  • Per the SOP for Oreo Blizzard preparation, each serving requires three scoops of Oreo crumbs.
  • Because the scene looks identical scoop to scoop, the model can't rely on vision alone — it has to track its own progress through the sequence.

Flipping the Blizzard upside down

  • Force-controlled, tactile-driven grip keeps the paper cup from crushing as it's flipped upside down.
  • The grip is precise enough that no ice cream is dropped.

The foundation: a multi-layered AI architecture with state prediction & real-time control

  • A lightweight latent world model for next-physical-state prediction, paired with Craftnet, our VLA model for trajectory control combined with a System 0 for real-time, tactile-based grasp control, power North's autonomous work.
  • CraftNet, our "reflex system" for contact-rich manipulation, gives the hand precise, continuously-adjusted force control: enough pressure to shape and hold the ice cream, but not enough to crush the cup.
  • Critically, DQ's signature Blizzard upside-down flip requires tactile-driven control that no teleoperation device can achieve today — North has to operate autonomously to perform the move.

A meaningful step toward making robots productive in changing environments

  • The same underlying model handles a cup, a spoon, a machine handle, an autoclave door, and metal rings.
  • The model adapts to real-world variability — different patterns of customer movement, deformable cups that change shape under grip, changing lighting, and more.
  • North represents a meaningful step toward robotic generalization, pointing to a future where robots can complete full shifts across a wide range of real-world service environments.


Where to find your Sharpa North-made ice-cream

  • Location: DQ store, Shanghai
  • Timeline: Launching in August

Media & partnership enquiries: pr@sharpa.com