This Beer Pouring Robot Just Became Your New Best Friend
This article is more than 2 years old
Who says dogs are man’s best friend? While I love the hell out of my dogs, and nothing will ever take their place, this little guy may have just become my new buddy. After all, neither of my dogs has ever poured me a cold one like the Asahi Beerbot. I keep asking, but they just look at me like I’ve lost my damn mind.
DARPA is always working on robots to help out in disaster situations, to carry heavy loads for soldiers, and all sorts of great, worthy applications to make the world a better place. But this is really the area that robotics technology should be focusing on. That’s just one, admittedly very skewed point of view, anyway.
It seems appropriate that Beerbot is Japanese, who else in the world is this innovative when it comes beer-pouring technology? Not only will this new friend pour you a frosty mug of your favorite adult beverage, it also doubles as a mini-fridge and looks like R2-D2. It just keeps getting better and better.
This video gives you a good idea of just how Beerbot works, and it’s impressive. Initially I thought you would probably have to put the can in the slot so the machine can open it, which really defeats the purpose of having a robot servant to pour you beer, doesn’t it? But no, it pulls a can right up from inside, as if by magic, saving you all kinds of time and effort.
My other big question about the effectiveness of Beerbot, was its pouring technique. If it were to just pop the top and dump the contents into a mug, you’d have an overflow problem, not to mention quite a mess to clean up. And again, this device is supposed to make your life easier, not give you more work to do. Yet again, Beerbot steps up like a champ, pouring your beer in steps, with the mug held at an appropriate angle to prevent the frothy head from spilling over.
The body holds six individual cans, keeping them cold until it’s time to drink, and comes with a childproof lock on the door. You get two sturdy, glass mugs, six foam cup bases, and a plastic protector to go underneath just in case you do happen to have an overflow. And if that isn’t enough, you can program the voice to be male, female, or create your own custom greeting.
Beerbot is designed and intended for use with standard Japanese beer cans, which run 350 ml. However, it has been tested with the usual 355ml American cans, and seems to work just fine. But this is something you should be aware of before you buy.
