Shaken, not stirred: Makr Shakr, KUKA, and SICK are mixing cocktails with Robotic Gripper Arms
If you order a tequila sunrise on the rooftop terrace in the luxury hotel TownHouse Duomo in Milan, you will not get your drink served by a bartender made of flesh and blood, but rather from Toni, the cocktail robot made from robotic gripper arms and collaboration. In a futuristic bar with more than 150 kinds of spirits that all hang upside down from the ceiling, the robots expertly mixes first-class cocktails. Italian robot maker company, MAKR SHAKR, developed the stainless-steel bartender. The robot gripper arms are from KUKA, the intelligent safety concept for direct human-machine collaboration from SICK.
Toni the robotic bartender is fully automatic and, uses its robot gripper arms to create drinks of all kinds. The cocktail robot can mix anything, from classic gin tonics to special creations. It can pour tequila, lemon, and orange juice, fill the cocktail shaker with ice cubes, shake it, carefully add grenadine, decorate the tequila sunrise with a slice of lemon and serve it to the guest. However, it needs precise instructions from orders placed by via an app on a tablet or phone. Toni then gets started and serves freshly prepared cocktails at a consistent level of quality completely on its own. Toni was actually developed to humanize the robot motions, working with a robot choreographer to create life-like motions.
Four safety laser scanners from SICK protect the openly accessible working during the entire mixing process. There are two S300 on the front side of the bar and one safety laser scanner on the left and right side.
The working range is not released for access until the robot arms have reached park position and Toni has put down the completed cocktail for its guest. If a guest should accidentally reach into the robot working range before that time, the robot immediately makes a safe stop.
The purpose of Toni is not to replace the classic bartender, but instead highlight how high-end technology from Makr Shakr, KUKA, and SICK can work in our daily lives.
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