Drinking beer in a pub, without a bartender

That’s what BRILLO is for, a robot bartender. From now on you can drink beer without having to talk to a bartender.

Some people just go to the pub for a chat, other people hate the ‘mandatory’ chat. There is now a solution for the latter group of people. Because there is BRILLO, which is a robot that can serve you beers.

Robot Bartender

Italian scientists at the University of Naples Federico II have developed a machine that can pour beers. The acronym stands for Bartending Robot for Interactive Long-Lasting Operations. The robot does everything you expect from an experienced, battle-hardened bartender. He can remember your favorite drinks, chat and even joke if that’s the mood at the bar. If you don’t come for that, he won’t say anything.

BRILLO is old school, complete with bow tie and vest. He also has a human-like face. Not because this was technically a condition, but to make it a bit more personal. According to CNBC, BRILLO began development in 2020 through a collaboration between university researchers from PRISCA Labs and Totaro Automazioni. The latter is an Italian manufacturer of machines for food assembly lines. Professor Silvia Rossi, a principal investigator at PRISCA, told CNBC said that instead of just making a machine that can make drinks, the team wanted to “imitate the important social aspects of a bartender’s job.” Behold, the robot bartender.

Interaction

So there is only contact if a visitor really wants it. The team behind the robot has gone to great lengths to train BRILLO’s AI algorithm. This is to “study a customer’s face and speech patterns to learn in real time”. This way BRILLO the robot bartender knows what mood a customer is in and can start an interaction based on that. Cheers!