Robotic Bartender Built With Industrial-Grade Hardware

Robotic bartenders are a popular project around these parts. If there’s one thing hackers love, after all, it’s automating tasks – as much for the challenge as for the actual time saved. This build from a group of [Teknic Servo] engineers is an impressive example of what can be done with some industrial-grade hardware.

The bartender is built as a demo project for the ClearCore controller, [Teknic’s] industrial-grade device capable of interfacing with a whole bunch of servomotors and sensors to get the job done. The controller is hooked up to a bunch of ClearPath servomotors that handle spinning the bottle carousel, muddling or stirring the beverage, or transporting the drinking glass through the machine. There’s also several interlocks to avoid the patron coming into contact with the bartender’s moving parts while it’s working, and a standard bar-style mixer dispenser actuated with solenoids to keep things simple. Drink selection and control is via a touch screen, with sliders for selecting preferences such as alcohol content and sweetness.

The bartender is certainly capable of producing a neat drink (pun intended), and serves as a great example of how easily a project can be put together with industrial-grade hardware. If you’ve got the budget, you might find using an industrial plug-and-play components quicker than assembling development boards, motor controller shields and other accessories on breakout boards. There’s always more than one way to get the job done, after all.

We’ve seen some great barbots over the years, from builds relying on robotic arms to those focused on ultimate speed. Video after the break.

12 thoughts on “Robotic Bartender Built With Industrial-Grade Hardware

  1. I mean, this was an ad but at least it was an ad I didn’t mind watching to the end. And damn effective as I was really thinking “I need one of these in my life.” Sure you can accomplish this with some off the shelf controllers, some relays, and a 3d printer and I can hot glue something similar. And they’ll be booze, and blackjack, and hookers. Ok, maybe not the hookers. Or the blackjack. You know what, just forget the whole thing.

      1. I was thinking of a story by Henry Kuttner, in his Gallegher series. But a check says the inventor created while drunk (and couldn’t remember details afterwards). He built the robot, but I see nothing about it serving drinks. I read it abiut forty years ago.

        Alfred Bester apparently had a story abiut a robot bartender.

        As I recall, Jim Butterfield, of Commodore fame, was an investor in a bar in Toronto that had a robot bartender, in the late seventirs, or maybe early eighties. I never saw an indication that he helped design or build it.

  2. Those controller boards are really reasonably priced (compared to other semi-industrial boards). The steppers/servo drivers feel pretty expensive but not stepped out of the control side of things into the drive side.

    1. Bars are already plumbed for CO2. It provides working pressure for the beer kegs and carbonates the softdrinks on demand. Using the CO2 to push a few valvaes around would make a barely-noticeable difference in over all CO2 use of the bar. It’s a very elegant solution for this environment.

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