Please ensure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser to view this page.

We know that some of you like to imbibe on a regular basis — no judgment from us! And unless you’re a neat whiskey type of person, you probably like to mix cocktails. That can become a chore, which is why you might want to draw some inspiration from Russell Schwartz’s BoozeBot robotic cocktail mixer.

This machine can mix up to six liquid ingredients, which allows for a wide range of cocktails. The user can decide which bottles to use in order to accommodate their drinks of choice. One could also expand Schwartz’s design to include additional bottles if they want more cocktail options. The only downside is that the bottles aren’t cooled and there is no automatic ice dispenser, so users have to fill their glass with ice by hand. But BoozeBot takes care of all of the hard work of mixing cocktails in the correct parts.

BoozeBot pulls liquid from each bottle through a 6V peristaltic pump, which is ideal because only the food-safe flexible tube makes contact with the liquid. That makes cleaning easy — just run your cleaner through the tubes every now and then or when you switch bottles. An ESP32 development board controls the operation of the six peristaltic pumps through an eight-channel relay board. It doesn’t receive any feedback, so it calculates dispensed volume based on pump run time. That isn’t very accurate (especially for carbonated beverages), but it works well enough for mixing drinks.

The frontend kiosk app interface runs on a Dragon Touch K10 Android tablet. Schwartz programmed the interface using React Native and TypeScript. The user can select a recipe from a database in the kiosk app. The app also lets the user select the ingredient in each “slot,” so it knows if the recipe ingredients are available and which pumps activate. The recipe contains ratios of ingredients, so users can select from a 75mL, 150mL, or 250mL pour. After choosing a drink in the kiosk app, the user pushes an arcade button on the machine to start the dispensing process.

Schwartz built BoozeBot in his garage over the course of a month with the help of a friend. The frame is wood and a handful of 3D-printed parts tie everything together. The completed BoozeBot looks great and is pretty compact, so it should fit well in most homes. As we would expect, Schwartz reports that BoozeBot is a big hit at parties.

Hackster.io, an Avnet Community © 2022