This article was first published in the December 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
They may lack a human bartender's conversational skills, but the Makr Shakr's robotic arms can make a pretty good cocktail. "It can reproduce all the actions of a barman - from the shaking of a Martini to the muddling of a mojito, even thinly slicing a lemon garnish," says Carlo Ratti, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Senseable City Lab where the Makr Shakr bar was developed. "Because they're robots they don't make mistakes and they're able to mix doses to millimetre precision."
Sixty spirits can be stored in the ceiling-mounted bottles, alongside syrups, sodas, juices, lemons and limes. Customers place an order through the companion app, either choosing from classic cocktails, remixing recipes created by other users or creating their own from scratch. "It was surprising that most drinks are not the classics, but actually custom-made," says Ratti, who recently spoke at WIRED2015. "We are running quite a lot of analytics on the data -- it's amazing to discover the unusual combinations that come out of it."
To avoid the aggressively sharp action of typical industrial robots that might intimidate customers, the Makr Shakr team carefully choreographed the arm's movements, taking cues from analysis of the motion of Roberto Bolle, principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre.
"It was not an easy engineering task," says Ratti. "In the first prototype the robot would sometimes miss the cups. The interesting thing is that people would try to support it by clapping their hands."
Two Makr Shakr bars have been installed on Royal Caribbean cruise ships, and a pop-up version, packed inside a shipping container, was exhibited at the Expo Milano 2015, before heading to a private event in London this month. "We're working on several new configurations," says Ratti. "A smaller machine that could fit into a corner café, and even a low-cost one for your living room."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
