Comments on: Hackit: Cocktail Robotics

By: magnus

magnus — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:09:05 +0000

some really nice thoughts - would like to see them realized at future roboexoticas :D

layered cocktails: a team from silicon valley had planned to attend with their (bio-tech)bot that i 've seen preparing layered micro-cocktails with great precision - but they were tied up in a takeover of their business in november and had to cancel, so i hope we'll have them next year ..
(see also http://www.shifz.com/2007/06/awesome-bio-tech-micro-cocktail-making.html)

By: Shabby

Shabby — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:56:58 +0000

Informated Article… Appreciated!

By: Tabansi

Tabansi — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:06:09 +0000

Informated Article… Appreciated!

By: Corey

Corey — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:10:11 +0000

This is very obvious, but you may too do it.

By: Blind

Blind — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 05:27:15 +0000

if you freeze foam (just water and air), will it be well insulated by the air pockets and stay frozen for a while or melt quickly due to the water itself being fairly thin?

By: Blind

Blind — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 05:25:43 +0000

Regarding the cocktail jet

I thought about that, but I started wondering how good an idea it would be considering that you need to not only track the glassware, but you need to lead it. Well, ok, maybe it isn’t that big of a risk, but I don’t trust the customer not to move their glas while a stream shoots through the air.

By: Blind

Blind — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:57:14 +0000

Skill crane style robot arm that travels along the ceiling of the bar. When you raise your glass above your head, the robot detects it, runs over above your glass and automatically pours a drink. The drink poured could be based on an hand held device that you can order on, an rfid or barcode in the glassware itself, or RFID on a membership card and a preprogrammed list of drinks each member can fill out before hand.

Actually, the third one would probably be required to handle billing. But all in all, it would be a slick way to handle refills.

By: Skyler Orlando

Skyler Orlando — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:54:29 +0000

A multi-armed chef that tosses salad ingredients… hopefully getting everything into the bowl.

The ice idea is cool, though. I’ve seen on this site a “water printer”, combine that idea and make a “glass” picture…

By: zawen32

zawen32 — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:09:23 +0000

@beanolini:
hm…the idea of pouring something down my throat thats “way below 0 C” worries me..imagine the ensueing brainfreeeeeeze.. :)

By: IIVQ

IIVQ — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:45:11 +0000

Actually, Ice doesn’t melt that fast. I once did a project on it and a bar of ice 2″ thick can go from -60ish to 0 C in about 2 minutes, but will then take about an hour to melt down to half it’s thickness in room temperature.

What you want is ice that has very little air bubbles in it – which act as insulation. Clear ice will have a high heat transfer and will go to 0 C very quickly, while “insulated ice” glasses with a thick bottom will have a cooler center.

And actially, if you create the glasses on the spot, I don’t think they have to last for more than 5 or so minutes. Maybe someone should contact the ice hotel – they have ice glasses there.

A cool thing would be a robotized coctail jet: One central location near the bar with a nozzle that can spray coctail – then a camera (or touch-sensitive bar) tracks the location of a glass, and the coctail jet projects a jet of beverage into the glass.

By: Beanolini

Beanolini — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:57:27 +0000

#5: Any contents hotter than 0C would attack the ‘glass’ from within. Alcohol’s depression of the melting point could be an advantage here- a drink with a significant proportion of alcohol could be served at way below 0C. The ‘glass’ could also be cooled far below 0C so it lasts longer… though I don’t know how far you could go before it sticks to the drinker’s lips.

I don’t think the centrifugal layering would work, however- this won’t separate miscible liquids, or it would be possible to centrifugally extract the alcohol from beer! Cream wouldn’t centrifuge out, either, as the act of shaking would produce an emulsion.

By: momotarosan

momotarosan — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:17:14 +0000

hot wire cut? I would prefer laser cnc ice sculpting
http://www.laserspec.net/icerouter/

By: cbm5

cbm5 — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:51:06 +0000

anything made out of ice with a cnc-like machine needs to be customized and very small quantity to be worthwhile, because of the ease and speed of simply using a mold to make complex ice shapes in large quantity. or else the machine needs to be able to make so many different types of objects, that it would be infeasible to store a lot of molds and prefrozen objects for immediate use.

maybe take prefrozen ice shot glasses, and carve a fractally generated unique snowflake on every one?

By: jaded

jaded — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:48:50 +0000

Shot glasses will be “tough” to make durable. With little mass, they won’t be able to absorb much heat before melting. And alcohol dramatically lowers the freezing point of water, meaning the icy container will be attacked structurally by its contents at the same time. But I suppose a “shooter” doesn’t have to last too long.

The idea I would offer for rapid prototyping in ice would be a hot-wire type of machine, similar to wire-EDM, using heat instead of sparks. Not sure how you’d make a concave surface, but it’s just an idea.

By: Beowulf

Beowulf — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:47:59 +0000

What about just using a regular cnc router to mill it from a small block. Not as cool, but think how the ice sculpting business would change.