Bartenders Replaced by Robots?

Dec. 2, 2005 — -- It's happened to auto factory workers, assembly line workers, even vacuum cleaners and now it could be happening to bartenders -- replaced by robots.

RoboBar is a robot bartender that can work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that won't call in sick and won't complain about tips.

At the same time, it does have its drawbacks: It can't listen to your troubles or offer you a drink on the house, and you can't flirt with it -- at least not yet.

For an industry where customer service and ambience are paramount, can warm flesh be replaced with cold steel?

Walk up to RoboBar and you're greeted by your choice of a man or woman's face displayed on an LCD screen, where the robot's head should be.

To get a drink from your robotic server, you first have to swipe a card authorizing the libation -- which helps ensure you're 21. Then you simply order the drink of your choice by tapping buttons on a touch screen.

"You select on the screen what you want to drink, like beer, wine or soda," said Ron Potter, senior director of emerging technologies at Motoman, RoboBar's manufacturer. "Then it'll bring up the choices you've got for that, so there might be eight or nine different liquors, you know, vodka, whiskey, etc., and then you choose the mixers."

After that, RoboBar goes to work, swiveling its chassis and spinning its gears to use its two arms to mix and pour your drink, all the while telling you jokes and talking to you to keep you entertained.

When the drink is done, RoboBar serves it up on a Lazy Susan, it spins around and voila -- you're drinking the cocktail of tomorrow.

"What a horrible idea," laughed Rob Bookman, counsel for the New York Nightlife Association. "We're in the hospitality business -- we do more than just serve drinks. You can stay home if that's all you want."

Bookman says no robot could ever replace the human interaction people enjoy from a real live bartender.

"Part of going out is -- whether it's to a bar or a restaurant -- the human connection and the atmosphere," he said. "I think the bartenders at our establishments are the highlight in many cases and the heart of the establishment."

Despite his initial reaction, Bookman says he could see bars and restaurants making use of the company's "service bar" model -- which is meant to be used in the back of a restaurant and basically "manufactures."

"It has up to eight dispensing guns, each of which are capable of dispensing 16 different ingredients," said Potter. "So you have up to 128 different ingredients coming through the arm of the robot that you can mix very quickly."

Potter says that speed gives the service model the ability to turn out a mixed drink in about 10 seconds. Even complicated drinks, like a Long Island Iced Tea, which has five or six liquors in it, can be made in about 12 to 14 seconds.

Speed, reliability and consistency are what Potter thinks makes RoboBar the perfect employee.

"If you look at just the pouring of drinks," he said, "there's about a 20 percent loss of inventory due to mispours, over-pours, free drinks and that kind of stuff."

RoboBar, he says, can save bar and restaurant owners significant amounts of money on inventory, but also because this employee doesn't require benefits, breaks and has no friends to give drinks away to.

It's a point that's not lost on Tim Gleason, general manager of New York's trendy China Club nightclub.

"Sure you could save money on theft, and inventory and stuff like that," said Gleason. "But even so, it wouldn't be something we'd be interested in because in the service industry -- especially now -- customers have very high expectations and I just don't think they'd feel good about getting their drinks this way."

Gleason, who's been in the bar and restaurant industry for the past 30 years, says there's a place for RoboBar, but it's not in high-end establishments like his.

Taylor Rau, editor of Nightclub and Bar magazine, thinks RoboBar is the natural progression of the bar and restaurant industry using technology to bring in business and keep it.

"Portion control, touch screen POS [point of sale]," he said, "all of these things are evolving very, very rapidly and owners are always asking, 'How can we use technology to get people into the club and out of the home?' "

Rau says despite being able to envision bars and clubs across the country where RoboBar is a welcomed and novel addition to the staff, people will still always want a human to interact with.

"You want to flirt with the beautiful bartender or you want to say, 'Please make this drink a little heavy' or, 'Make it a little light' or, 'Gimme two cubes,'" he explained. "There are too many twists to quality service."

Bookman agrees that places like airports and maybe some theme restaurants could benefit from RoboBar, but in a club or bar -- at least in New York City -- he says it just won't work.

"In a club where you're paying $9, $12 for a drink I can't imagine anyone feeling comfortable getting a drink from a machine," he said.

For now, you won't be able to find RoboBar serving up drinks at your favorite watering hole; only two units have been sold and both are primarily being used at trade shows and to entertain guests of their corporate owners.

At $150,000 for the "entertainment" model and $200,000 for the "service" model, they likely won't be flying off shelves this holiday season.

But, Potter says, they will be featured prominently in an upcoming chain of theme restaurants due to open next October -- though he couldn't reveal the franchise's name.

In general, Potter sees RoboBar as the next step in the evolution of robots as they become everyday helpers like the robotic vacuum cleaner Roomba.

I think robots in general are coming off of the factory floors and into our everyday lives," he said. "There's more and more computer intelligence being put into devices like robots that are making them more useful."