Your Friendly Neighborhood Barristabot

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the future.

 As part of its ongoing mission to makeover industrial robots’ tough (and dangerous) image into something a little kinder (and collaborative), KUKA dressed up a a KR AGILUS HM food grade robot in its fanciest bow tie to play the part of booth barista at IMTS 2016 at Booth N-6200.

Surrounded by giant, heavy-weight machines, laser melting 3D printers, and novel collaborative concepts, the JoeBot is currently taking orders, brewing drinks in a Kuerig Brewing System, and serving visitors’ custom selections, all while keeping the cell neat and tidy.

Whether this does anything to help make robots friendlier or more approachable is up for debate. But what’s for certain: it’s awesome and I want one.

JoeBot at IMTS 2016 from Penton Manufacturing Group on Vimeo.