The first run for the External Combustion Engine at Roboexotica 2006 in Vienna, Austria was a success, and took home the award for category: Cocktail Mixing.
The Roboexotica program description read:
A very simple drink delivery system, controlled by RFID tags and which operates using pressurized liquids passing through fuel injectors to provide humans with liquid "fuel". When an RFID tag is placed down on the controller, the machine reads the tag to identify which drink to make and makes the drink associated with the particular tag by emitting bursts of liquid from the fuel injectors.
Vienna was a blast and the show was tons of fun. I made many liters of a drink that was equal parts dark rum, vodka, and dark berry juice. The drink looked like gasoline, was strong enough to serve in shots, and was enjoyed by those the drank it. We only made one drink, as I did not have time to rewrite the software. The code in the computer was just there to test that every thing was working and never meant to deliver a drink. You might notice that there were four injectors and only three ingredients. That was due to the fact the one just did not work after I unpacked the the robot from my luggage. I think in the end, that was rather fortuitous, as I really like that the one drink it made was so fuel-like.
* See all Flickr photos of the External Combustion Engine here.
* Watch the Roboexotica Geek Entertainment TV episode featuring the machine in action, and a full explanation of how it works, RFID, fuel injectors, and all.
