Inebriator, the Arduino-powered cocktail robot, is your personal bartender

With a lot of time and a few gadgets, some crafty creatives at home built a robot bartender powered by Arduino microcontroller.

Bartenders can be tricky to deal with. You always want to shop around to find ones that mixes a generous ratio of liquor, but it’s an added plus if he or she is also fun to talk. It’s even better if they throw you a free drink or two after a long night. While it can be hard to find all these qualities in one bartender, the Inebriator comes close. This Arduino microprocessor-powered robot can make you the perfect drink every time — and you don’t even have to tip or leave your home.

The setup is simple: rows of spirits lined up upside down, ready for pouring. When you order a drink, the robot moves the glass horizontally across the machine to obtain the calculated parts of a cocktail — making the drink with the exact same ratio each time. If you drink comes with a mixer, an external cooler attached to the machine spritz the final touches to complete your order. Did we mention a cool glow of lights changes colors each time a new drink component is thrown in?

This home project relies largely on the tiny Arduino board, an inexpensive processor similar to Raspberry Pi. While it doesn’t have the functionalities or capacities like Raspberry Pi, Arduino is relatively inexpensive and fun for programmers to experiment with in order to whip up something as creative as the Inebriator. From the looks from its website, putting the robot bartender together was no easy feat. Among the gadgets required, a Hitachi HD44780 compatible display, a stepper motor, RFID sensor, and LED lights were just some of the items used in the making.

The Inebriator creators are currently working on a second version which should hopefully hide the cords in the back of the machine and also heed to the recommendations from a recent Reddit forum. Some of the ideas discussed include a pressurized CO2 system to keep mixers carbonated as necessary. Our other suggestions are to figure out a way for the robot to grab a glass of ice itself, or adding a tumbler so the robot can shake and mix the cocktails to perfection.

No words on whether the Inebriator is meant to be made for commercial use or if the creators will release a tutorial for the curious programmers at home. While you ponder, here’s a video of the cocktail robot in action.