In the beginning, there was a menorah-like shape. This design for the smoothie machine featured a tunnel-like system that relied mostly on gravity and used very little electricity.

That design never made it to built form from the paper because it could not function on its own. The aim of the project was to be able to replace any human controlled interaction with the device with robotic, automated components, and this design failed completely on this basis. The next idea was based on an axis-swivel octagon that would contain chambers holding different frozen fruit. The idea was to create rotating motors under each chamber so fruit could be evenly dispensed. Two issues we encountered with this design were (1) the use of too many motors (we had a maximum limit of up to 7 motors), and (2) problems creating an octagon. Read the rest of this entry »

NuVu student Zach tries various programmatic combinations to coordinate flipping pancakes on the hot plate using the robotic arm.

Our students are beginning to imagine the Restaurant of the Future. Of course, robots play a big role in that future! See the students’ initial prototypes for various food robots below.

Brownie 2.0
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