VIENNA, Austria -- As bartenders go, El Espanol Borracho tends toward the mercurial side. Get too close to his little flamethrower, and he's likely to set you on fire.
That's not the only risk at this week's Roboexotica Festival, which bills itself as the world's leading exploration of cocktail robotics. The milling crowd of hackers and techno-artists here hardly looks fight-prone, but Robomoji's saw-blade gears look wicked sharp, and the sledgehammer arm on the easy chair's built-in ice crusher could easily crack a misplaced skull.
What's happening here is not just art, not wholly technology, but an intoxicating mixture of the two that manages to comment on both while still pouring a (sometimes) decent drink. Kind of like that philosophy major who tends bar at your local watering hole.
"It's fun to be playful with technology and ideas, and not just listen to the call of money and practicality," said Jonathan Moore, a San Francisco programmer whose RFID-enabled External Combustion Engine is one of about a dozen bots pouring drinks at the festival. "Alcohol's brilliant, robots are brilliant and RFID is brilliant. Why not put them together?"
The liquid concoctions being poured probably won't win any bartending awards, but another type of mixology is on tap here: The advent of small, powerful batteries for cell phones and laptops, along with continued advances in microcircuitry, is revving up garage robotics.
"Anyone with access to an eBay account and a Home Depot can build a robot," said Simone Davalos, creator of El Espanol Borracho and head of security for San Francisco's decidedly more hazardous Survival Research Laboratories. "Robotics is all about improvising."
If the improvisation involves alcohol and fire, so much the better.
Roboexotica is the brainchild of a group of Viennese techno-artists called Shifz, which started the event in 1999 reasoning that if robots were ultimately supposed to interact with humans in everyday life, then turning them into bartenders was a natural step.
"I like to mix critical art and technology," said Christoph Veigl, festival co-founder and developer of some of the most sophisticated barbots, including the giant-eyeball-topped Alan, which wheels around offering guests popcorn and beverages. "There's an ironic aspect here, with machines that work irrationally, not so fast, and not so perfectly, in a social environment."
Seven years later, Shifz and its partners have won support from Viennese art organizations, found a home in a prestigious museum on the edge of the city's ornate old town, and drawn participants from around the world.
"I'm still amazed at how enthusiastic people can get about alcohol and robots," said Magnus Wurzer, one of the festival's organizers.
