Alberts
Engineering an Automated, Food-Safe Smoothie Machine
Case Overview
Voxdale engineered Alberts' automated smoothie maker — a compact, food-safe robotic vending machine that turns frozen ingredients into fresh, personalised smoothies, hot soups and vegan shakes, 24/7.
Sector
Industrial & Robotics · Food & drink automation
Client
Alberts, a startup making healthy food accessible; founded by Glenn Mathijssen (CEO), Philippe and Stefan
Product
An automated vending machine that transforms frozen ingredients into ready-to-sip smoothies, hot soups and vegan shakes, personalised, in a 1 m² footprint
Voxdale's role
Engineering of the automated machine, from concept through an evolving, ongoing partnership
Technologies
Automated ingredient handling and preparation, multi-product capability, food-safety-compliant production, compact footprint
How we worked
Long-term collaboration; Alberts' R&D grew into a stand-alone unit that still works in Voxdale's workshop
Hardest challenge
Fresh, food-safe, personalised production from frozen ingredients, unattended and 24/7, within 1 m²
Outcome
A working automated machine deployed for fresh snacking; an evolving partnership
Case Overview
Voxdale engineered Alberts' automated smoothie maker — a compact, food-safe robotic vending machine that turns frozen ingredients into fresh, personalised smoothies, hot soups and vegan shakes, 24/7.
Sector
Industrial & Robotics · Food & drink automation
Client
Alberts, a startup making healthy food accessible; founded by Glenn Mathijssen (CEO), Philippe and Stefan
Product
An automated vending machine that transforms frozen ingredients into ready-to-sip smoothies, hot soups and vegan shakes, personalised, in a 1 m² footprint
Voxdale's role
Engineering of the automated machine, from concept through an evolving, ongoing partnership
Technologies
Automated ingredient handling and preparation, multi-product capability, food-safety-compliant production, compact footprint
How we worked
Long-term collaboration; Alberts' R&D grew into a stand-alone unit that still works in Voxdale's workshop
Hardest challenge
Fresh, food-safe, personalised production from frozen ingredients, unattended and 24/7, within 1 m²
Outcome
A working automated machine deployed for fresh snacking; an evolving partnership
Case Overview
Voxdale engineered Alberts' automated smoothie maker — a compact, food-safe robotic vending machine that turns frozen ingredients into fresh, personalised smoothies, hot soups and vegan shakes, 24/7.
Sector
Industrial & Robotics · Food & drink automation
Client
Alberts, a startup making healthy food accessible; founded by Glenn Mathijssen (CEO), Philippe and Stefan
Product
An automated vending machine that transforms frozen ingredients into ready-to-sip smoothies, hot soups and vegan shakes, personalised, in a 1 m² footprint
Voxdale's role
Engineering of the automated machine, from concept through an evolving, ongoing partnership
Technologies
Automated ingredient handling and preparation, multi-product capability, food-safety-compliant production, compact footprint
How we worked
Long-term collaboration; Alberts' R&D grew into a stand-alone unit that still works in Voxdale's workshop
Hardest challenge
Fresh, food-safe, personalised production from frozen ingredients, unattended and 24/7, within 1 m²
Outcome
A working automated machine deployed for fresh snacking; an evolving partnership
Executive Summary
Alberts was born from a simple frustration: healthy food is too often inaccessible, overpriced and disappointing.
Co-founders Glenn Mathijssen, Philippe and Stefan set out to fix that with a machine that serves fresh, personalised smoothies on demand — anywhere, at any hour.
They came to Voxdale with a clear ask: engineer an automated smoothie maker that efficiently turns frozen ingredients into a ready-to-sip smoothie, meets strict food-safety standards, and fits a 1 m² footprint so it can live in schools, offices, hospitals and retail.
Voxdale engineered that machine — a robotic vending unit that now also makes hot soups and vegan shakes — and the collaboration has endured: Alberts' R&D team has grown into a stand-alone unit that still works in Voxdale's workshop, trading ideas with Voxdale's engineers.
Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Client Context
Alberts is a startup on a mission to make healthy food accessible.
The idea began with an experience its founders had in the USA — ordering, overpaying for, and being disappointed by a smoothie. Rather than keep complaining about how hard it is to find healthy food, co-founders Glenn, Philippe and Stefan decided to do something about it.
Their vision was a game-changing smoothie maker: one that produced delicious, ready-to-sip smoothies, met stringent food-safety standards, and could serve fresh, personalised smoothies at schools, offices, hospitals and retail locations, 24/7, all within a compact 1 m² footprint.
Client Context
Client Context
The Technical Brief
Engineer an automated machine that efficiently transforms frozen ingredients into a ready-to-sip smoothie
Meet stringent food-safety standards for unattended, hygienic fresh-food production
Serve fresh, personalised smoothies 24/7 at schools, offices, hospitals and retail
Fit everything within a compact 1 m² footprint
The Technical Brief
The Technical Brief
The Harder, Less Obvious Part
The brief carried a set of constraints that reinforce rather than simplify each other:
Fresh, food-safe and unattended, all at once. Producing fresh food to strict hygiene standards is hard enough with staff present; doing it 24/7 in an unattended machine raises the bar on sanitation, materials and reliability.
Frozen-to-fresh in one compact unit. Turning frozen ingredients into a smooth, ready-to-sip drink on demand means handling, portioning and blending frozen material reliably and quickly.
Everything inside 1 m². Ingredient storage (cold chain), preparation, blending, dispensing, cleaning and the user interface all have to coexist in a very small footprint.
One product becomes many. The platform expanded beyond smoothies to hot soups and vegan shakes — a wider range from the same machine.
The Harder, Less Obvious Part
The Harder, Less Obvious Part
What Voxdale Delivered
Voxdale engineered five generations of the C2K device in direct co-development with ITM's clinical research team.
An automated, food-safe smoothie vending machine. Voxdale engineered the machine that efficiently transforms frozen ingredients into personalised, ready-to-sip smoothies, with a design committed to strict food-safety compliance for safe, hygienic snack production.
Multi-product capability. The machine handles not only smoothies but also hot soups and vegan shakes from the same unit.
Compact, deployable format. The unit was designed to a minimal ~1 m² footprint so it can serve fresh, healthy snacks in schools, offices, hospitals and retail spaces.
What Voxdale Delivered
What Voxdale Delivered
How We Worked
The engagement has been a long-term, collaborative partnership rather than a single delivery.
Over time, Alberts' R&D team has grown into a stand-alone unit, but the collaboration endures — they continue to work in Voxdale's workshop, exchanging ideas with Voxdale's engineers, and that ongoing dialogue has become a source of inspiration for both teams.
How We Worked
How We Worked
The Hardest Challenge — and How We Solved It
The challenge. Delivering fresh, personalised, food-safe smoothies from frozen ingredients, unattended and 24/7, in a 1 m² machine.
What it proved. A compact machine can serve fresh, food-safe, personalised snacks on demand.
The Hardest Challenge — and How We Solved It
The Hardest Challenge — and How We Solved It
Outcome
An automated, food-safe smoothie, soup and shake machine engineered and in use
Product range expanded beyond smoothies to hot soups and vegan shakes
An evolving partnership; Alberts' R&D operates from Voxdale's workshop
Outcome
Outcome
What This Proves for Similar Teams
This case is for food-tech and automated-retail founders who want to turn a “fresh, healthy, on-demand” idea into a real, food-safe, unattended machine — and who value a partner that stays for the long haul.
It shows Voxdale can engineer compact fresh-food robotics and grow with the client from concept to an ongoing R&D relationship, rather than handing over a finished product and stepping away.
What This Proves for Similar Teams
What This Proves for Similar Teams
Ready to turn your product idea into an automated, real-world machine?
Voxdale engineers complex mechatronic systems — from concept through to a working, deployable unit — and stays on as a long-term development partner as your product evolves. Explore our Industrial & Robotics capabilities or contact us to discuss your automation challenge.
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Wonderful ideas, engineered from sketch to scale
© 2026 Voxdale BV
© 2026 Voxdale BV
© 2026 Voxdale BV