Beer and robots are a great combination. As industrial America has disappeared, industrial art and hobbies have sprung up, utilizing the tools of the bygone industrial age. Now, we can count along with the many technological wonders of the modern age, beer launching robots, beer serving robots, automated home breweries, and even robot kegerators. A beer-launching robot has even been seen on the Late Show with David Letterman.
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| Wired has a kegerator robot that serves beer |
Robot building just goes better with beer. There are few hobbies that don’t go better with beer – granted, it may make hobby more dangerous, but with danger comes excitement. With excitement, danger, and beer, usually there is blood as well. It follows naturally that roboticists making robots in there spare time, drinking beer, would make such robots as the ‘killer’ robots pictured here. These robots, the Subjugator, Drunken Master, and Spiderbot, were made by Christian Ristow in association with RoboChrist Industries.
A decline in industrial manufacturing and industry in the United States has not meant a decline in inventiveness in the United States. This is especially true when it comes to beer and robots. Coming out of the home brewing revival in the 1970s was also a revival of the D.I.Y.(Do It Yourself) mindset. It took a while for D.I.Y. beer and D.I.Y. robots to meet up, but finally, we are there. Sadly, most beer LAUNCHING robots can still only fire commercially produced canned beer, and not home brew. However, these two hobbies come very close with robots such as Wired’s Beer Robot – a robot kegerator.
The engineers over @ Yelp.com took a keg and tap, an Arduino, an RFID reader, and an iPad and turned them into an amazing kegerator robot. The device not only tracks who’s been drinking but also tracks information about the beer as it’s poured, including the temperature and ratings of recently poured drinks (so you’ll know when the keg is on a roll). They even put together a bookmarklet to monitor and track the keg remotely.
It should be noted that the recent wave of D.I.Y. robot building has even taken the term “home brew” to describe many garage style hobbies. This term is often used to describe a hobby interest that comes from a technical or industrial field, but is made at home, such as home brew computers, home brew robots, and even engines. This is further proof of the connection between beer and robots.
One great moment of inspiration and promotion of home brew robotics was when the Late Show with David Letterman had a special guest: the Beer Launching Fridge. Also, the beer launching robot’s maker, John W. Cornwell, Duke University graduate. The Beer Launching Fridge that Mr. Cornwell invented launches beer up to 20 feet, and is remote controlled. In a blog post, Mr. Cornwall expressed the possibility that he may make his Beer Launching Fridge commercially available, and with improvements: the new design would allow a user to swivel the robotic armature with the remote, effectively aiming the launcher.
The phenomenon of beer and robots is not only confined to the garage and DIY inventors. Asahi has built a little robotic bartender that stores and pours beer. This invention can be seen at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tXmGYk_A_c This robot seems to be built more for cuteness than efficiency, though. It takes about three and a half minutes for it to pour a beer, and it spills some, too.
One great take on the beer launcher is a mechanical unit which is foot pump operated. The ‘Ultimate Tailgating Machine’ holds 12 cans of beer and was the final group project for three student of a Design Class at U of I. See it in action at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCIGIe2T4j0 Brought to the world by Dan Larson, Justin Tobin, and Steve Walker.
As we can see, beer, kegerators and robotics are a great combination, with potential for great fun.
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