Drink Bot/Bartris/Adult Mario
Drink mixer with video game controls
2009
The Drink Serving Robot was built as part of a residency at MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, Austria, October-December 2009, to be shown at the Roboexotica exhibition. It consists of 3 drink serving lines, which are controlled via computer. The software for the controlling drink mixtures is based on video games such as Super Mario Brothers and Tetris. It is also controllable over the internet via Second Life.
The video game interfaces introduce a feedback loop into the system. The better a player does, the stronger the drink they mix. Therefore, the more they play, the more they drink, and the worse they will play in future sessions. This allows the bot to be self regulating for alcohol resources.
Originally designed by Mitch Heinrich and Chris Vogel for the 2009 Roboexotica bot workshop, the drink pouring system for the robot is a combination of simplicity and clever design, resulting in a system that is cheap to build and control. It consists of 3 chopsticks nailed to a wooden plank. Tubes for liquid flow are fed under the chopsticks. Servos are mounted to the board, and the chopsticks are tied to the rotating heads. To constrict the flow of liquid, the servos are simply turned to a point where they will be pulling down on the chopsticks. Releasing the servos lets liquid flow through the system.
The "active-off" nature of the system does mean there are issues when the controller board reboots or power is removed from the system. However, when weighed against the price and complexity of pumps, along with no real accuracy requirements for pouring amounts, this system fulfills the needs of the project.
Computer control for the drink serving bot happens via a python server process. The python server receives OpenSoundControl messages, which it parses and sends the resulting command to the controller board. This control layer gives a developer the ability to quickly and easily build a drink serving interface into any program that can access the network and send OpenSoundControl messages.
To immerse players in the games more as they drank, the amBX gaming environment system is used. The system consists of controllable RGB lights, fans which blow at the player, and a rumble bar.
For haptic feedback, the Rez Trancevibrator is used. It allows the user to feel vibration whenever the game state triggers it.
The tetris interface to the drink serving robot was a python implementation adapted from a PyGame example. The rules for drink mixing were based around the colors of pieces in play.
As players created lines in the game, the color makeup of the line determined the drink to be made. So, if a line (each of which have 10 segments) was 4 brown pieces, 4 gray pieces, and 2 blue pieces, the bot would mix a 4/4/2 coke/rum/water shot for the drink. The game could either be played for 10 lines (at which the cup was full), or an "infinite" game where the drink had to be consumed while the game was being played. The losing state for the infinite mode was either the usual lines filling up the game grid, or the drink overfilling.
The Super Mario Brothers interface for the drink bot uses the original Super Mario Brothers game for the NES. The ROM is played through the FCEUX emulator on a PC. FCEUX not only emulates the ROM, but it allows for developers to modify games via a LUA scripting engine that has access to the RAM/ROM of the game as it is being played. Through this interface, information about game state (coins collected, enemies killed, level endings, etc...) can be monitored, and events can be sent to outside programs via IPC or network.
For the drink bot installation, the following rules were applied:
The amBX system is used to immerse the player in mario's world. The fans from the system blow in the player's face at different speeds as mario runs, and the vibrator speed is set for the length of time mario spends sliding down the flag pole at the end of the level.
As a last minute addition for the Second Life version of Roboexotica, a module was added to the drink serving bot that allows it to be controlled via Second Life. An object in Second Life, which clicked, makes an HTTP call to the same python server that the two game control methods call, allowing SL users all over the world to mix drinks for the attendees at the exhibition.
