I enjoy good coffee and personally prefer immersion brew. Nothing against a good pour over, they have their place, but they can be finicky and don't scale well to larger volumes.

Aeropress and Clever dripper are my go to brewers (I like paper filter clarity)

Clever or Aeropress XL can only do two cups of coffee at a time. That works for my spouse and I every morning, but it does not when hosting guests

So we break out the drip machine to brew larger volumes of coffee whenever we host guests

I want a machine to brew coffee more conveniently for myself on rushed mornings and also brew coffee for guests and large groups

Coffee quality is the most important so I want to grind and brew emersion coffee with high precision over weights of beans and water, grind size, and water temp. Brewing ~500ml of good coffee should be straight forward, I do that now with my clever dripper, but I'm really interested in larger volume brewing. My theory is that immersion brewing will scale much better than pour over style brewing.

The machine should take all the raw inputs and with the press of a button create great coffee. I want my guest to be able to go over and brew their own cup without needing instructions. If coffee quality holds up I'd also be interested in exploring larger brew volumes that could go into a carafe. When serving coffee with desert for a group I need large quantities of coffee all at once.

Initial scope focuses on the mechanisms to grind and brew emersion coffee automatically. Fully automatic from water reservoir and whole beans. Weights (ratios) need to be measured and controlled electronically. Grind size and water temp can be manually setup for each bean for this initial scope of work. 

Phase 1:

User interaction is simple enough that anyone can walk up and brew a cup of coffee once the machine is setup.

Bean to cup where whole beans are stored and ground on demand for the brew cycle.

Immersion style brewing with precise control over water and coffee weights to half a gram or better.

Fully automated, press a button and 2-3min later a cup is ready.

Brew volume control for initial experimentation with larger brew volumes. Range of 500ml to 1000ml brew volumes supported.

Phase 2:

Add more brew volume range from as little as 250ml to 1500ml of quality can be maintained.

Simplify cleanup and re-set so any user can walk up and re-set machine for next brew

Phase 1:

User places coffee mug or carafe under coffee maker and presses brew button.

Water:

Water reservoir and some method to move water into the brew chamber with precisely measure weight of water going into the brew chamber

Beans:

Bean hopper and some method to precisely measure weight of beans going into the grinder. Grinder can be manually setup in advance of brew cycle. Ground beans then fall into brew chamber.

Brew Mechanisms:

Water can either be pre-heated to boiling before entering the brew chamber of heated there in the brew chamber.  Once water is at temp and ground coffee is added the water will need to be stirred/agitated to mix. Once immersion brew is finished it will need to be agitated again to drop the grounds to the bottom of the brew chamber.

Then some kind of stopper/plunger opens and allows the coffee mixture to flow through a paper cone filter similar to a clever dripper. Coffee gravity drains into a coffee cup or carafe.

Brewer re-set:

User manually removes coffee filter holder from bottom of brew chamber and dumps paper filter and grinds. They then press a clean button that sprays water into the brew chamber to wash it clean. That water falls into a catch tray under the cup/carafe shelf similar to a espresso machine. The user then places a fresh filter into the filter holder and inserts it back into the machine. The machine is now ready for another brew cycle.

Phase 2:

Water:

Add precise water temp control

Beans:

Add precise electronic control over bean grind size

Brew Mechanisms:

Add more options for brew volume, multiple bean types, etc. 

Brewer re-set:

Simplify with possible revolving hoppers so multiple brews can happen with little to no re-set. I would also like to rinse the paper filter with a little hot water into the drip tray.

1. Coffee bean setup (ratio, temp, grind size, etc...) saved for multiple bean types.

2. Water "quality" - coffee water.

3. Larger volume brewing

4. Programmable recipes that can be selected (personal taste). This would require the grind size, water temp, and ratios to all be electronic control.

5. Multiple hoppers for beans to select

Other ideas considered:

Model this immersion brewer more like an Aeropress and use pressurized air and a sealed brew chamber to force the water through the grinds and filter.