There’s nothing better than spilling all your troubles to a man who really doesn’t care that much, but what if that man was made of servos and wiring? Enter, the Robot Bartender, a new project coming out of Italy.
Created by students at the University of Naples Federico II, a new Robot Bartender could take over your local drinking hole. But just why is this device so impressive?
Brillo, the robot bartender
Dubbed Brillo, the Italian bartending device is a remarkable piece of kit. Designed for all bartending activities, Brillo is able to serve drinks and engage in conversation with patrons.
Brillo stands for Bartending Robot for Interactive Long-Lasting Ooerations. This means that the robot bartender is purposefully designed to operate for years, acting exactly as a human would.
Using machine learning algorithms, the robot is able to recognise regulars. Upon recognising a regular patron, the robot will remember past conversations to form dialogue. Furthermore, it will even remember favourite drunks to pour for individual people.
However, the most impressive aspect of the robot is thus: it can tell jokes. It’s not known if the robot can tell good jokes or bad jokes, but if it’s an accurate bartender it’s likely the former.
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Will Brillo replace humans?
In some establishments, Robot bartenders will replace humans. However, at least for now, it won’t be Brillo that replaces them. At the time of writing, Brillo is simply a university experiment, nothing more.
At some point, robotic bartenders will become an everyday part of some bars. However, others will benefit from the experience of a human bartender. After all, bars are about the human experience, even if they pour bad drinks sometimes.