It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere: The Universal Robots Bartender

Talk about versatile. Not only does the Universal Robots cobot mimic the movements of a human, now it can appreciate a good stiff drink as well. As part of an ensemble of robotic arms outfitted with special end-effectors, the arms are programmed to pick up glasses, fill them with ice and then complete your beverage with the mixer of your choice and send it on down a conveyor belt to deliver it to your seat.

The “Cocktail Bot” determines which of two types of glasses is best suited for your chosen beverage, uses a gripper to select the glass from an industrial dishwasher rack and turns it right side up. After placement on the conveyor belt, a vision system tracks the position of the glass. The second robot scoops the ice cubes and places them into the glass as it goes by.

The liquor options are all contained in their original bottles and a Robotiq 3-Finger Adaptive Gripper provides adequate grasp. Each liquor bottle is outfitted with a special dispenser nozzle that allows for an exact pour while the robot follows the glass down the conveyor belt.

The final robot either adds the soda mixer or places a drink order straight-up on the return conveyor that goes to the customer. A specialized software system controls each robot from one controller.

The Cocktail Bot 4.0 was created by the FZI Research Center for Information Technologies in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Jul 28th 2017