Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Bartendro robot mixologist crafts cocktails with Raspberry Pi


Cocktails may never be the same again. Robot can handle up to 15 bottles of booze and mixers and can dispense precision cocktails in less than 10 seconds.


Some tasks are better left up to computers, like playing "Jeopardy," calculating pi, and mixing cocktails. Wait ... mixing cocktails? If you don't think a computer can whip up a compelling cocktail, then you haven't met Bartendro.
A creation of the awesomely named company Party Robotics, Bartendro is a robot mixologist crafted from peristaltic pumps, Raspberry Pi, custom electronic dispenser boards, and food-grade tubing. It may simultaneously be the least-necessary and most-desirable robot in the world.
The cocktail-dispensing machine can turn out a drink in less than 10 seconds. It can churn out 200cocktails in an evening -- and it won't break a sweat, take a bathroom break, or hit on your girlfriend. Don't worry, you can still sit there and tell it all your problems. It won't interrupt and it won't judge you.
Perhaps the best part of Bartendro is that it's not relegated to a lab somewhere far away where you'll never get to bask in its boozy glory. It's on Kickstarter. Early backers can get in on a Shotbot for $249, a working robot that dispenses shots from a single bottle.
Let's be realistic, though. You won't be satisfied with just a Shotbot. You're going to want to move up the pledge ranks and jump straight to the $2,499 level for a 15-bottle Bartendro. You just need to provide a tablet or smartphone to tell it what to do. Sure, the smaller Bartendros cost a lot less money, but for sheer overpowering robotic cocktail mayhem, you can't beat a Bartendro 15.
Let's raise a glass to Bartendro. I'm hoping it reaches its $135,000 goal, and Party Robotics is able to put the machines into wider production. If I had one of these, I would never leave my house again.

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