8 ms·

Build your own drink mixing robot

159 points by ytham 12y ago

arm55 12y ago
Awesome. I'd really love to see one of these that's good enough to actually use at scale at a large party. This one looks closer than a lot of the others that I've seen. Perhaps higher quality peristaltic pumps (higher flow rate, less noise) in combination with more ingredient chambers would push it over the edge.
fit2rule 12y ago
Nice! Still got a ways to catch up with these guys though: http://www.roboexotica.org/ http://www.roboexotica.org/ Includes regularly-scheduled party!
- kevinwang 12y ago
  Wow, this and the OP are incredibly sick.
  - ytham 12y ago
    Thanks for sharing! Really cool drink robots in the link! :)
markbao 12y ago
Very cool! From a health perspective, has anyone looked into whether these homemade machines for food/drink are safe for consumption? I see that the tubing in the materials list is FDA-approved, but has there been any work done on the other stuff? And with alcohol specifically, are there any potential complications?
- vacri 12y ago
  The liquid should not touch anything outside of the tubing or tubing interconnects, so it shouldn't matter so much if the parts don't meet FDA requirements.
- arm55 12y ago
  One of the large benefits of peristaltic pumps is that the only thing that the liquid touches is the tube.
  - markbao 12y ago
    Ah, that's great. For those wondering how: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peristaltic_pump.gif https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peristaltic_pump.gif
- zurn 12y ago
  It needs some kind of cleaning cycle (unless all your ingredients are hard liquor...)
changdizzle 12y ago
awesome, yujiang! it's been cool to see all the hardware stuff you've been hacking over the past few months, sad i missed this your party (and the bar mixvah)!
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
joshmn 12y ago
This is now my summer project. Thank you!
kokey 12y ago
I've always thought some kind of automated drink mixing system would be good for busy inner city cocktail bars. You can still have a bar where people can sit and watch someone mix drinks, but the rest of the venue can be tables with table service. The orders from the tables are taken by a person and gets sent to the kitchen where the drinks are made by machine. This will retain the personal touch of people attending to tables personally, and allow them to serve drinks often, promptly and consistently.
- chrissnell 12y ago
  I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but what kinds of drinks are you drinking and where are you drinking them? Yes, a robotic mixer might work in a crappy bar for standard bar drinks like a Rum and Coke, Long Island Iced Tea, etc., but anything beyond the standard pour-and-serve is probably best done by the human touch, especially if you're charging big city prices for them. That said, there are some places that do use quick mixers to mix up the classics. Garduños, a huge Albuquerque, NM mexican restaurant (as seen in Breaking Bad, season 5!) uses pre-mixed margarita mix from a keg and dispenses it with a typical bartender's soda gun. They've realized that most people who order "well" margaritas aren't that discerning and appreciate the consistency that a factory-mixed 'rita delivers. Garduños serves them by the gallon and the pre-mix saves them lots of bartender time when they're mixing their most popular cocktail. This would never fly in a nice bar, though. These days, most big city bars are chasing the money and the money is in "craft cocktails". It's all about the ingredients and the customized drinks that are tailored to the customer's preferences. Bartenders are making a big show out of things like twisting a slice of orange peel to release its oils. The presentation is hugely important here and a robotic mixer just doesn't have the right vibe, in my opinion.
  - ebiester 12y ago
    That's exactly when to use such a machine. While I appreciate a great cocktail, that's not what I'm getting on the average Saturday night at the dance club. I would prefer a faster cocktail in many of those cases.
  - petercoolz 12y ago
mithras 12y ago
Consider a kickstarter, I'd love to buy one.
- kfnn 12y ago
  Actually, there's one similar, happening now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/barobot/barobot-a-cocktail-mixing-robot https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/barobot/barobot-a-cockt...
  - emhart 12y ago
    And another that ended not long ago: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/partyrobotics/bartendro-a-cocktail-dispensing-robot https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/partyrobotics/bartendro...
- timdorr 12y ago
  There is one being built out of Atlanta: http://monsieur.co/ http://monsieur.co/ They had a successful Kickstarter last year: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monsieur/monsieur-the-artificially-intelligent-robotic-bart https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monsieur/monsieur-the-a... I've had it before. It's pretty good. Makes for a unique rental for parties/events, but a little pricey for my tastes to buy at home. I believe they're going after rich folks with large in-home bars but without time to mix the drinks themselves.
fest 12y ago
Aren't the linked peristaltic pumps a little bit too slow for this purpose? It would take 3 minutes to fill 300ml of soft drink on top of 200ml vodka.
- chrissnell 12y ago
  It would take quite a pump to match the speed of a skilled bartender with a soda gun in one hand and a vodka bottle in the other.
  - VLM 12y ago
    You might be surprised at what compressed air and a liquid siphon tube can do with a vodka bottle. 100 psi rated, extremely fast acting air valves are not that cheap and you need to filter and regulate the air and slow leaks make a mess and some dripping is inevitable, so "the scene" tends to now use tubing pumps as seen in the linked article. Another tech thats been popular over the years is just tipping the bottle, which has the advantage of putting on quite a show and the disadvantage (or maybe not?) of splashing. You need a beefy servo because the center of gravity and torque are going to vary as the bottle empties. Finally another tech often implemented in these robots is running the receptacle on an accurate-ish lab scale. Gram level accuracy is probably good enough although 0.1g accuracy would be better. Its an old idea thats been around since at least the 80s home computer era, its been fun watching reimplementations and new ideas and new techs.
    - TTPrograms 12y ago
      I've always preferred the compressed air approach, but mostly because of cost - those peristaltic pumps are pretty pricy if you want to get 12ish bottles in there. I was under the impression that you could use relatively cheap pneumatic solenoids like this http://www.amazon.com/Vdc-Normally-Closed-Solenoid-Valve/dp/B007D1U64E/ref=zg_bs_1265148011_4 http://www.amazon.com/Vdc-Normally-Closed-Solenoid-Valve/dp/... at ~$5 rather than ~$14. Do you think that it's important to get high quality valves? My plan was to use a scale and do some feedback control to compensate.
gamesbrainiac 12y ago
You still have to put in the ice youself. Perhaps version 2.0 will have this feature :P
hemancuso 12y ago
I've always thought something like this would be a fun idea to build a cocktail bar around. 80% of making a great cocktail is precisely measuring and combining high quality ingredients. . If you spent some time making a very attractive machine that was fun for patrons to watch, mixed great drinks that were finished with a human touch, it could be a really interesting draw. I imagine a place with a beautiful/badass MIT-made drink-mixing machine would do quite well in Kendall square. Create list of 8-10 interesting drinks that change weekly, that source from perhaps a dozen different liquors/fresh juices. The machines selects one of 4 glasses that was already clean, could precisely measure/mix/shake the drink leaving the bartender to garnish, present, squeeze fresh lemons into a container. I think you could have a quality experience.
- ljf 12y ago
  Totally this - I always day dream about buying an industrial robotic arm and setting it to work as a cocktail machine - some of the seriously high end ones move at insane speeds, so this could work out faster than human barstaff - especially if you can mutli-thread the tasks. One for my lottery win daydreams.
- conanbatt 12y ago
  Even better, you can make a recipe API, and given a set of ingredients and some configuration, anyone can suggest a drink or pick one if available, so every robot mix drinker makes the exact same cocktail in any bar. Use case: I like my Old Fashioned strong with a slice of lemon instead of orange. Make recipe, put online. Go to any bar with robot mixer: same Old Fashioned everywhere!.
- ngoel36 12y ago
  This is literally what one Valley founder has done with Smitten Ice Cream in SF. http://www.wired.com/2013/06/the-blue-bottle-of-ice-cream/ http://www.wired.com/2013/06/the-blue-bottle-of-ice-cream/
Zigurd 12y ago
I'll have a soylent and vodka.
leonhuu007 12y ago
You should monetize it soon. I would be one of your first customer. Great Job!
Gobiel 12y ago
You do not seem to put the emphasis on what's interesting: Is the drink actually any good? Great job, obviously!
pa5tabear 12y ago
We really need this for Soylent, and I remember there was talk about this on the Soylent forums soon after they got going. Does anyone know specifically what the issues are to creating a Soylent bot? Or is it in the works?
joezydeco 12y ago
SmartBar has been around a few years with a ready commercial product: http://smartbarusa.com/ http://smartbarusa.com/ They've found some traction with places like cruise ships and hotel conference facilities. They can drop one of these at a cocktail hour with a preset spend limit and the machine will happily pour drinks until the tab is maxxed out.
nctalaviya 12y ago
really a Great job with a fun idea!

159 points by ytham 12y ago

arm55 12y ago

Awesome. I'd really love to see one of these that's good enough to actually use at scale at a large party. This one looks closer than a lot of the others that I've seen. Perhaps higher quality peristaltic pumps (higher flow rate, less noise) in combination with more ingredient chambers would push it over the edge.

fit2rule 12y ago

Nice! Still got a ways to catch up with these guys though: http://www.roboexotica.org/ http://www.roboexotica.org/ Includes regularly-scheduled party!

kevinwang 12y ago
Wow, this and the OP are incredibly sick.
- ytham 12y ago
  Thanks for sharing! Really cool drink robots in the link! :)

markbao 12y ago

Very cool! From a health perspective, has anyone looked into whether these homemade machines for food/drink are safe for consumption? I see that the tubing in the materials list is FDA-approved, but has there been any work done on the other stuff? And with alcohol specifically, are there any potential complications?

vacri 12y ago
The liquid should not touch anything outside of the tubing or tubing interconnects, so it shouldn't matter so much if the parts don't meet FDA requirements.
arm55 12y ago
One of the large benefits of peristaltic pumps is that the only thing that the liquid touches is the tube.
- markbao 12y ago
  Ah, that's great. For those wondering how: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peristaltic_pump.gif https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peristaltic_pump.gif
zurn 12y ago
It needs some kind of cleaning cycle (unless all your ingredients are hard liquor...)

changdizzle 12y ago

awesome, yujiang! it's been cool to see all the hardware stuff you've been hacking over the past few months, sad i missed this your party (and the bar mixvah)!

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

joshmn 12y ago

This is now my summer project. Thank you!

kokey 12y ago

I've always thought some kind of automated drink mixing system would be good for busy inner city cocktail bars. You can still have a bar where people can sit and watch someone mix drinks, but the rest of the venue can be tables with table service. The orders from the tables are taken by a person and gets sent to the kitchen where the drinks are made by machine. This will retain the personal touch of people attending to tables personally, and allow them to serve drinks often, promptly and consistently.

chrissnell 12y ago
I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but what kinds of drinks are you drinking and where are you drinking them? Yes, a robotic mixer might work in a crappy bar for standard bar drinks like a Rum and Coke, Long Island Iced Tea, etc., but anything beyond the standard pour-and-serve is probably best done by the human touch, especially if you're charging big city prices for them. That said, there are some places that do use quick mixers to mix up the classics. Garduños, a huge Albuquerque, NM mexican restaurant (as seen in Breaking Bad, season 5!) uses pre-mixed margarita mix from a keg and dispenses it with a typical bartender's soda gun. They've realized that most people who order "well" margaritas aren't that discerning and appreciate the consistency that a factory-mixed 'rita delivers. Garduños serves them by the gallon and the pre-mix saves them lots of bartender time when they're mixing their most popular cocktail. This would never fly in a nice bar, though. These days, most big city bars are chasing the money and the money is in "craft cocktails". It's all about the ingredients and the customized drinks that are tailored to the customer's preferences. Bartenders are making a big show out of things like twisting a slice of orange peel to release its oils. The presentation is hugely important here and a robotic mixer just doesn't have the right vibe, in my opinion.
- ebiester 12y ago
  That's exactly when to use such a machine. While I appreciate a great cocktail, that's not what I'm getting on the average Saturday night at the dance club. I would prefer a faster cocktail in many of those cases.
- petercoolz 12y ago

mithras 12y ago

Consider a kickstarter, I'd love to buy one.

kfnn 12y ago
Actually, there's one similar, happening now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/barobot/barobot-a-cocktail-mixing-robot https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/barobot/barobot-a-cockt...
- emhart 12y ago
  And another that ended not long ago: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/partyrobotics/bartendro-a-cocktail-dispensing-robot https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/partyrobotics/bartendro...
timdorr 12y ago
There is one being built out of Atlanta: http://monsieur.co/ http://monsieur.co/ They had a successful Kickstarter last year: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monsieur/monsieur-the-artificially-intelligent-robotic-bart https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monsieur/monsieur-the-a... I've had it before. It's pretty good. Makes for a unique rental for parties/events, but a little pricey for my tastes to buy at home. I believe they're going after rich folks with large in-home bars but without time to mix the drinks themselves.

fest 12y ago

Aren't the linked peristaltic pumps a little bit too slow for this purpose? It would take 3 minutes to fill 300ml of soft drink on top of 200ml vodka.

chrissnell 12y ago
It would take quite a pump to match the speed of a skilled bartender with a soda gun in one hand and a vodka bottle in the other.
- VLM 12y ago
  You might be surprised at what compressed air and a liquid siphon tube can do with a vodka bottle. 100 psi rated, extremely fast acting air valves are not that cheap and you need to filter and regulate the air and slow leaks make a mess and some dripping is inevitable, so "the scene" tends to now use tubing pumps as seen in the linked article. Another tech thats been popular over the years is just tipping the bottle, which has the advantage of putting on quite a show and the disadvantage (or maybe not?) of splashing. You need a beefy servo because the center of gravity and torque are going to vary as the bottle empties. Finally another tech often implemented in these robots is running the receptacle on an accurate-ish lab scale. Gram level accuracy is probably good enough although 0.1g accuracy would be better. Its an old idea thats been around since at least the 80s home computer era, its been fun watching reimplementations and new ideas and new techs.
  - TTPrograms 12y ago
    I've always preferred the compressed air approach, but mostly because of cost - those peristaltic pumps are pretty pricy if you want to get 12ish bottles in there. I was under the impression that you could use relatively cheap pneumatic solenoids like this http://www.amazon.com/Vdc-Normally-Closed-Solenoid-Valve/dp/B007D1U64E/ref=zg_bs_1265148011_4 http://www.amazon.com/Vdc-Normally-Closed-Solenoid-Valve/dp/... at ~$5 rather than ~$14. Do you think that it's important to get high quality valves? My plan was to use a scale and do some feedback control to compensate.

gamesbrainiac 12y ago

You still have to put in the ice youself. Perhaps version 2.0 will have this feature :P

hemancuso 12y ago

I've always thought something like this would be a fun idea to build a cocktail bar around. 80% of making a great cocktail is precisely measuring and combining high quality ingredients. . If you spent some time making a very attractive machine that was fun for patrons to watch, mixed great drinks that were finished with a human touch, it could be a really interesting draw. I imagine a place with a beautiful/badass MIT-made drink-mixing machine would do quite well in Kendall square. Create list of 8-10 interesting drinks that change weekly, that source from perhaps a dozen different liquors/fresh juices. The machines selects one of 4 glasses that was already clean, could precisely measure/mix/shake the drink leaving the bartender to garnish, present, squeeze fresh lemons into a container. I think you could have a quality experience.

ljf 12y ago
Totally this - I always day dream about buying an industrial robotic arm and setting it to work as a cocktail machine - some of the seriously high end ones move at insane speeds, so this could work out faster than human barstaff - especially if you can mutli-thread the tasks. One for my lottery win daydreams.
conanbatt 12y ago
Even better, you can make a recipe API, and given a set of ingredients and some configuration, anyone can suggest a drink or pick one if available, so every robot mix drinker makes the exact same cocktail in any bar. Use case: I like my Old Fashioned strong with a slice of lemon instead of orange. Make recipe, put online. Go to any bar with robot mixer: same Old Fashioned everywhere!.
ngoel36 12y ago
This is literally what one Valley founder has done with Smitten Ice Cream in SF. http://www.wired.com/2013/06/the-blue-bottle-of-ice-cream/ http://www.wired.com/2013/06/the-blue-bottle-of-ice-cream/

Zigurd 12y ago

I'll have a soylent and vodka.

leonhuu007 12y ago

You should monetize it soon. I would be one of your first customer. Great Job!

Gobiel 12y ago

You do not seem to put the emphasis on what's interesting: Is the drink actually any good? Great job, obviously!

pa5tabear 12y ago

We really need this for Soylent, and I remember there was talk about this on the Soylent forums soon after they got going. Does anyone know specifically what the issues are to creating a Soylent bot? Or is it in the works?

joezydeco 12y ago

SmartBar has been around a few years with a ready commercial product: http://smartbarusa.com/ http://smartbarusa.com/ They've found some traction with places like cruise ships and hotel conference facilities. They can drop one of these at a cocktail hour with a preset spend limit and the machine will happily pour drinks until the tab is maxxed out.

nctalaviya 12y ago

really a Great job with a fun idea!