Back in 2002, [Dave] came across a discarded PUMA robotic arm and quickly set his sights on turning it into a bartender to serve drinks at his parties. Unfortunately, the arm was far from operational and being an engineer at his day job meant that working on this project was the last thing he wanted to do when he came home. So, progress trickled along slowly for years. He eventually announced a public deadline to spur him to action, and this years Pi(e) party saw the official debut of ‘Sir-Mix-a-Bot’ – the robot bartender.
With the exception of having to build a new hand for it, mechanically, the arm was still in good condition when [Dave] found it. The electronics were another story however. Using some off the shelf components and his own know-how, [Dave] had to custom build all the controls. The software was written from scratch as well. (He lucked out and had help from his brother who was taking a Ph.D. program in robotics at the time).
As if the robotics aspect of the project wasn’t enough, [Dave] even created a beautiful custom table that both houses and displays his masterpiece. The quality of craftsmanship on his table alone is worth the time to check this out – there’s a short video after the break.
[Thanks Dave]
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/62023335 w=400&h=300]
Well, it’s not that slow, pretty neat but I bet someone would just grab a bottle and screw it up!
Slower than Tom Cruise, but probably a better actor.
What isn’t?
Very neat. It looks like the weakness here is the software. It looks like there is no acceleration and deceleration and the motors are not tuned well.
Exactly what I was thinking. The table is shaken way too much.
Yes. Shaken, not stirred.
James Bond would approve – that robot does a great job of shaking the bottles (Vodka martini, shaken, not stirred)
The difference between shaken and stirred is about the amount (and how) of ice is added to the drink…
Very cool! I’ll soon be getting a Mitsubishi RV-M1. I think I have a project to use it in, then :D
out here in the netherlands we also have a mixing robot arm. only is ours raising 3 floors high for your drink and mixing from several homebrew cocktails..
http://www.recensiekoning.nl/2013/02/58638/de-robotarm-van-mr-mofongo
But can I tell it my wife doesn’t understand me? Anyway its a nice build but it needs a smoother deceleration when the bottle comes to the glass, if it was serving champagne it would look like a science fair volcano.