Robexotica 2010 ACRA winners

The Annual Cocktail Robot Awards 12.0 were handed to the deserving winners on Sunday, the closing night of Roboexotica 2010.

Serving Cocktails: Amboribot by Daniel Schatzmayr, Andrea Reiss, Nora Neumann
Mixing Cocktails: Layer Bot by Bernhard Kubicek
Conversation: Daredroid by Jane Tingley, Anouk Wipprecht and Marius Kintel
Fire & Smoke: Desoberation Chamber by Dixie Red & Heisl Amir
Other Achievements: Kitzel den Zapfhahn by FH Joanneum
Hardest Partying Robot: 12" pianist by Jesse Zbikowski, Franz Ablinger, Phil Stearns
Tenacity: Benny the Booze Organ by Ryan Finnigan, Aaron Beck and Lars Vin Andersen
Most Pleasurable Side Effects: Exciterator by Crashspace LA represented by Sean Bonner
Most Beautiful Execution: Rotsch-O-Mat by Roger Weber
Most Wasted Alcohol: Slow Shot by David Brunnthaler, Christian Katzinger, Marcin Szostak

... and a lime for most disgusting look and taste went to W.C. - WODKA CLOSETT by students of FH Joanneum.

To learn about the Honorary Mentions that were passed out have a look at roboexotica.org/index.php?winners2010.
For a short description of all participating robots head to roboexotica.org/index.php?robots2010.

VCRA 1.0 Winner: Misprint Thursday

Re-post from Mechatiki Research blog:
In a successful mixed-reality ceremony, Misprint Thursday was awarded the first Virtual Cocktail Robot Award for her creation Wodka Bot.
The RL ceremony of the Annual Cocktail Robot Awards was video-streamed into SL, and when the moment came to award the virtual prize the RL video projector was switched to show the inworld scene, where an illustrous round had assembled to celebrate - and witness another world's first: qDot Bunnyhug's RL cocktail robot being controlled from within Second Life. A former Linden Lab employee specializing in controlling sex-toys via SL, he wrote the needed code in 15 minutes as he claims.

Thanks to CYlandSL for hosting this event, Pinkpink Sorbet and 5tefan Negulesco for keeping the stream alive and everybody involved for making this work!

Update: qDot's mixed reality Rum & Coke contraption is featured on Hamlet Au's New World Notes blog!

Awards: awarded.

The Annual Cocktail Robot Awards have been awarde to a list of worthy recipients. You can get the complete list here: http://www.roboexotica.com/?acra
And along with the real world robots, one virtual cocktail robot received an award in Second Life in a mixed reality ceremony.
More of all that later, for now I just wanted to get out the winners!

ACRA 11.0 + VCRA 1.0 = Awesome Beta

You are questioning the rationale behind virtual cocktails made by virtual robots? Well once upon a time people thought making real robots mix drinks was crazy. Hello?!

In any case we are showing our appreciation for cocktail robots in their virtual incarnation by awarding the first Virtual Cocktail Robot Award this year in an inworld ceremony in Second Life (TM), that will be part of the ACRA event at Roboexotica which will be video-streamed into SL.
Join us either in real life in Vienna, or if you prefer at the virtual venue which is hosted by our friends of CYlandSL.

t < 1 month

Roboexotica imminent! All cocktail roboticists on deck, soldering irons plugged.
We invite you to join us at the 11th Roboexotica in history from December 3-6!
While we are still trembling about getting one of the most interesting robots (Bar2D2) from the US over here (cross your fingers that there is a reasonable shipper somewhere), the preparations in Vienna are beginning.
This year a new location has to be promoted in order to get people to find us - we moved the event from Museumsquartier to the former manufacturing halls of a local liquor dispenser manufacturer, Drinkomat, in Vienna's 14th district, Missindorferstr.21. To warm both the location as well as ourselves up for the festival, we are organizing a cocktail robot workshop right there this week.
I am happy to say this year we will also see a number of young blood from Austria entering the cocktail robotic arena, alongside some familiar names from overseas like Mitch Heinrich, who pleased us with Fairy Juicer last year. He's monochrom's artist in residence and will be joining us in the workshop effort. Kyle Machulis is another mono-a.i.r. who will no doubt make the Annual Cocktail Robot Awards interesting.
The countdown is on!

Fairy Juicer (roboeXotica Video)

This cocktail-robot was presented at Roboexotica 2008 by Mitch Heinrich and won the Annual Cocktail Robot Award in the serving category ... to get an absinth you have to squoosh "the green fairy".

Article in June 2008 Servo Magazine by Simone Davalos - Preview

Simone Davalos who built one of the award winning cocktail-robots at Roboex07ica, wrote an article for Servo magazine to appear June 2008, of which I present you an exclusive preview:
"[...] Participants from around the world brought their machines to vie for the top awards, which go to the robots that best fulfill the stringent and exacting standards of the judging categories: Serving, Mixing, Conversation, Fire and Smoke, and Special Achievements. Other sub categories this year included Persistence, Environmental, Most Welcome Off-Topic entry, and Best Swiss Entry, about which more later on.
The Freiraum machine gallery space at the Museumsquartier in Vienna was crowded with old favorites and some promising up-and-comers. David Calkins, founder of RoboGames, showed up for his third RoboExotica with Chapek, the snarky arm-swinging bartender bot with glowing red eyes. Chapek razzed the crowd and made vodka or gin martinis as well as inappropriate comments to young women. Chapek ended up taking home the Cocktail Robot Award for the Conversation category at the Annual Cocktail Robot Awards, which took place the last night of the festival.
Robert Martin brought back RoboMoji, a popular machine and four year veteran of the contest. RoboMoji makes mojitos with a chain-drive conveyor belt, mechanically actuated lime squeezer and mint muddler, and automatic shot pourers. The drinks are tasty, but take a bit of patience while the machine does its thing. Robomoji's parts are handmade out of aluminum for an industrial effect with a sugar-coated ending. Watching the process is fascinating when it's running flawlessly, and even more fascinating when the machine breaks down and the creators swarm over it to find the problem (rule one of robotics, especially cocktail robotics: robots break). For this reason, RoboMoji was awarded Honorable mention in the category of Patience.
Chris Veigl's Mind Reading martini maker, the winner of the Mixing category, collected EEG scans of the drinker's brain to determine how strong a drink the drinker is to receive. The more relaxed alpha waves the machine can detect, the stronger the drink. Since everyone there had been previously relaxed by other offerings, great amounts of gin and vodka flowed from the generous mindreader.
[...]
RoboExotica 2007 was not without its other mishaps. The winner of the Fire and Smoke category, El Espanol Borracho, offered up a stunning display when the flamethrower got stuck in the 'on' position and lit both its creator and the floor on fire. Luckily there were no injuries, as bystanders were laughing too hard to douse the flames effectually.
When it was repaired, ESB made excellent Spanish Coffees. With a press of ESB's Big Red Button, Kahlua and sweetened coffee mixture were poured into a rocks glass, and a small shot of the Austrian liqueur Stroh 80 was floated over top. Many would-be drinkers were warned away from grabbing their drink prematurely, as the final touch is a three second burst of butane/propane flame to add “flavor”. [...]"

And apropos - the publishers of Servo were among the judges for the bartending bots at Robogames 2006 ... and apparently fancied Chris Veigl's Cockbot One.

Simone - thanks for this entertaining and informative write-up!

ROBOEX07ICA Post Scriptum

Three weeks after the festival's over, I am slowly recovering from my annual peak alcohol-consumption (and reckless sleep-deprivation) - simultaneously fighting off the consequences of a snowy winter settling on Vienna (*coughcough*) - and I am starting to try to complete the coverage of this year's cocktail robotics festival #1 ...

- Conference audio: The symposium has been audio-recorded and put online. Link (german AND english)
- eSeL, our official photographer this year, has created the flickr-group roboexotica.
- There has been some (printed) press coverage locally - DerStandard, Wiener Zeitung, Kurier, ... - but so far there seems to be less international stir created than last year.

Upcoming: next year ROBOEXOTICA will be celebrating 10th anniversary, look out for special events right here!
So far the next scheduled big cocktail robot event will be at RoboGames 2008 - and we are trying to raise money to hopefully be able to send Robomoji to win a medal this time.

[ROBOEXOTICA's 2nd Office in Second Life is always open for a visit, of course!]

A Closer Look at the ACRA-Winners

Wired blog has a closer look at some of the ACRA 9.0 winners: Chris Palmer's Brethalyzer Genii, Franz Ablinger's Gesundheit, Robert Martin's Robomoji, Roman Maeder's Holy Golden Milk+Wodcow and Misha á Crest's Explanator.
Oh btw Mr. Dempsey, the Explanator not only is an alcohol-producing musical instrument - it is also an alcoholic vapor dispenser, enabling you to consume Absynth by inhaling plus it is an absynth-filled "water"-pipe!

(Photo above, from Poetina's ROBOEXOTICA-set: Gingerbread replicas of ROBOEXOTICA-logo "Guzman")

ACRA 9.0 Winners

While the cool kids are partying on at Bre Pettis' residence, the only thing keeping me from sleep is the urge to let the world know the winners of the Annual Cocktail Robot Awards 9.0 ...
In a late and dynamic gala there were prizes given away in more categories than ever.
At this point a word or two on the judgment system seems appropriate: The "secret judges" never knew they were judging when they were interviewed and the results of this method had interesting implications. Entries won categories that didn't previously exist.
So there were ten main winners this year who went away with precious gingerbread trophies crafted by poetina - replicas of ROBOEXOTICA's logo Guzman.
5 honorary mentions were formulated.
And there were 5 winners of a new kind of trophy awarded for meager achievments: Limes!

So here it is, the list of outstanding cockail-robotic manifestations shown at ROBOEX07ICA, with short notes on the judges' motivation:

SERVING
Explanator / Misha a Crest - Breathing might be THE future way to ingest herbal/alcoholic beverages
MIXING
MindReading MartiniMaker / Chris Veigl - way of determining ratio & innovative way around shaking/stirring
CONVERSATION
Chapok / David Calkins - the way he inspires drinking is quite authentic
FIRE & SMOKE
El Espanol Borracho / Simone Davalos - a) for not triggering the fire alarm b) only robot that includes flambéing in the preparation process
OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS
Blow Your Fortune / Chris Thomas Palmer - always knows what u should drink
PERSISTENCE
Gesundheit VI / Franz Ablinger - is hardheadedly trying to find a lasting configuration.
MOST WELCOME OFF-TOPIC ENTRY
Aktionsgruppe LN2.0 / FH Joanneum - good example of why and when humans are still needed in the cocktail environment
BEST SWISS ENTRY
The Holy Golden Milk+Wodcow / Roman Maeder - the milking proved to be a favorite human pastime
ENVIRONMENTAL
Perpetual Popper / Jaques Gallant - feeds people using only corn and sun

HONORARY MENTIONS
PATIENCE: Robomoji / Robert Martin - patiently adds assembling steps year by year (VIDEO)
VISIONARY: Robofriend 2 / Tom Heike first robot that combines mixing and mobile delivery
MOST CUTE AND SIMPLE UI: Rabbit's Revenge / FH Joanneum
MOST ACCURATE DEPICTION OF A ROBOT PENIS: Urinator / FH Joanneum
MOST VERSATILE: Explanator / Misha a Crest

LIMES
The Prisoner's Dilemma / David Fine - installation is a construction site
R.R. Shot-Bot / Bre Pettis- unfinished
Kalkohol / Johannes Grenzfurthner - causing floods is not an achievement
BF Ice Cube Gun / FH Joanneum - Vodka theft and militaristic behaviour
Urinator / FH Joanneum - ghastly impression makes drink undesirable
Bic-o-Mat/ Adrianb Dabrowski - no-show despite anticipated added features

(All other bots were in between so-lala and great and should return next year to try again.)