Robots are taking on increasingly complex tasks. As a case in point, Carl the robot bartender serves customers at German bar.
He’s handy with a shot glass and customers travel from far and wide to admire him at work.
The only strange thing about Carl the bartender is that he’s not quite human.
The humanoid robot mixes drinks for guests at the Robots Bar and Lounge in Ilmenau, eastern Germany.
The robot is the creation of mechatronics engineer Ben Schaefer, who has spent 23 years working in the field.
He built Carl from the parts of disused industrial robots from the German firm KUKA.
Writing on the bar’s website, Mr Schaefer said his company aims to make humanity in humanoid robots closer to reality and show that ‘scenes as in science fiction films are quite possible’.
Carl can also conduct short conversations with the customers who take up the bar’s nine seats, though they probably don’t sparkle like the drinks because his speech recognition skills and ability to interact are, for the moment, limited.
For now, Carl will be part-tourist attraction and part test-dummy while Mr Schaefer and his team work out how to shake humanoid robotics out of its ‘stagnant’ state.
Carl-like robots are not about to replace human bartenders en masse just yet, but technology is certainly advancing at breakneck speed.
I find these kinds of articles fascinating.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
