Several years ago, our apprentices have built inter-divisional the cocktail machine emkon. EASY MIX.  The machine was regularly improved and provided with upgrades; also today. 

For our in-house exhibition “Touch the Future” and a presentation event, that we have conducted in cooperation with the BVMW (The German Association for Small and Medium-sized Business), our mixer was equipped with a CoBot (collaborative robot), which handed cocktails to the visitors autonomously.

The CoBot is conspicuous with its bright green color. The high-performance Fanuc Robot from the CR-series, was originally provided for training purposes, but was reprogrammed for this “good cause”: The automatically mixed cocktails of our EASY MIX were picked up by the CoBot and handed to the visitors – the guests got their drinks completely autonomous.

The special feature of CoBots: The human-robot-interaction takes place without any safety fences. Whether providing cocktails or during daily operation, human and machine stand side by side or work simultaneously on the same component. There are higher requirements regarding the detection solutions and security system in the area of collaborative scenarios; finally, the CoBots must be stopped immediately, any contact must be excluded, and driveways must constantly be monitored. The Fanuc CR-series sets on ultra-secure “Contact-Stop”-, “Push-Back”- and “Anti-Trap”-security systems as well as comprehensive sensor technology. Additionally, the collaborators have a soft surface.

In order to hold the drink safely in hand, we have used an individual gripper solution, that has a barometric pressure inside the chambers which slowly bends its gripper fingers and appropriately regulates the maximum locking force.

You can see our CoBot in action in these review videos: