DRAFT Magazine

Forget flying cars. What we really want is a robot that wanders around parties serving beers to hungry guests. Luckily, a crew of scientists at Middlesex University is solving this problem.

The group brought their invention to the Kinetica Art Fair in London. How’s this baby work? Well, it follows a pre-programmed path and “when a party guest hold his or her hands above its sonar-sensing head and hands the kegbot a cup, the machine serves up a beer and continues on its merry way.”

That sounds just dandy, now doesn’t it? Want more? Engadget has the video.

It turns out that making a robot capable of going to the fridge and getting you a beer is much more difficult than one might think. CNet has a great story about one man’s struggle to do just that.

Staff writer Jennifer Guevin details how her uncle Bill has spent the past 30 years attempting to build a “BeerBot” that will “dutifully roll off to the kitchen to retrieve said beer, then navigate its way back to Bill with beer and bottle opener in tow.” He’s been stymied so far, but hopes to complete the task soon as technology improves.

We, for one, hope he succeeds sooner rather than later.