Hosting parties is always a good time, but when the host has to spend half of the party making drinks for everyone, it can be a real downer. A new project seeking funding on Kickstarter called the Bartendro hopes to rectify the situation by replacing the human drink mixer with a robot, much like the The Inebriator.
A Raspberry Pi is used to run the Bartendro. It's connected to a router board, which then is connected to up to 15 of what the creators call "dispensers." These are peristaltic pumps that dispense a certain amount of liquid with each rotation of their motor. Custom electronics let the dispensers know how much liquid to pour. Standard RJ-45 cable is used to connect the dispensers and the custom electronics to the Raspberry Pi.
Everything about the Bartendro is open source, and the creators hope backers find creative uses for it. Some examples, besides the already existing purpose of serving perfectly-measured drinks, include hooking up a breathalyzer, serving coffee, adding a card reader for payment, and the list goes on.
With the Bartendro, the host can set up the available drinks through an administrative backend, and when a partygoer decides he or she wants a drink, they simply connect to the Bartendro Wi-Fi network and open a browser. Any site they visit while connected will forward them to the drink-ordering page. The user clicks the drink they want, and the Bartendro will make it perfect to within a milliliter.
The Bartendro comes in a few different models, each with more custom dispensers. It starts with the single-dispenser ShotBot that is available for a pledge of US$299 and goes all the way up to the Bartendro 15 which will set buyers back $2,999. Obviously, more dispensers means that a wider range of drinks can be made. Backers looking to use the dispensers and other parts for alternate uses can also purchase individual parts.
The Kickstarter pitch video below provides more information on the Bartendro.
Source: Kickstarter