Pacific Standards for a Drinking Robot

Neck Pneumatics - This is the weakest part of the system. The Head needs a stronger piston that can more easily pull the head back into the original “drinking” position. The current piston is not strong enough to return the head from the forward “drain” position. In order to use a larger diameter piston a new metal plate will need to be made.

Spout - Some kind of plumbing will need to be installed in the head opening. A spout will also need to be used to direct the water into the cup to refill. Make sure that the acrylic hose inside the head remains close to the front of the head so that the siphon will begin as the robot tips forward.

Electronics - The eye LED’s will need to be installed in the head. Some kind of quick disconnect should be used with any wire going into the head so that it is easy to remove the head for service. Including the head spout.

Plastic head reservoir insert - This part is basically finished. The only remaining fix is to make sure that the hole is at the lowest point in the top reservoir piece so that all of the water drains. A heat gun could be used to carefully reshape the current piece of styrene.

Cup Lid - The idea behind the cup lid is to control the flow of water from the cup when the robot sips. This would allow the programmer to control the size of the sip by controlling the duration of the sip rather than wrist tilt.

Pneumatic controls - The Pneumatic control of the robot is fairly simple. The air is regulated to about 60lbs at the source. The only other adjustment is a set of four flow control valves. Each Pneumatic piston has a flow control valve that slows the air passing through the piston. This allows the operator to speed up or slow the time it takes the air to move through the system thus slowing the action of the piston.

Automation -  The Drinking Robot operates on just two switches. These switches send air through the system in opposite directions based on their position. A single controller should be able to manage the switching. A programmer could use a counter to allow the robot to take a designated number of sips before initiating the return sequence, returning the water to the cup.

Aesthetics - After the above steps are completed it is now time to style the robot and make him look like a bad ass drinking robot…

Also, remember that all of these parts will at some time break and need to be replaced. The stronger and more generic these parts are the better, ideally most parts of this robot could be found at a hardware store.

Good Luck! Please contact me for further questions or explanations –  Alex Blue