For a short description, a robot was a machine that can be programed to perform a set of task with little to no human intervention and its structure can vary from each other according to the task they do. I was never good at drawing so I'm asking your pardon for this awful work but when asked for a particular robot I want to make for a specific task perfectly, I gazed upon the Coffee Vending Machine stationed in our company building, serving varieties of coffee and upon thinking, I came up with the idea of bringing the convenience of this vending machine at home in a form of a Coffee- making robot that will make different types of coffee for my wherever I want. As most robot makers do, I name my robot as Coffee Panda, as I designed my robot based on lazy-panda, the community's curation account and I have it equipped with functions that allows it to complete the task that it was supposed to do that I will explain on this post.
If you have been reading my previous post, you probably known by now that I graduated a degree in Computer Science and though I currently work as an I.T., I have some knowledge and experience with programing and Computer Engineering through my studies so I can say that this topic was very relatable to me and the idea of a coffee- making robot was something that I could probably make, given that I have the time and the materials needed. With that, I was able to make a draft of the initial design of the robot which shows the functionalities that I could think in the moment that will allow it to make coffee for me.
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Coffee is in liquid form so in order to drink it, you need a container that will hold the liquid so if needs to have some sort of mug conveyor by which it will release a mug that was stored inside its body that will contain the coffee. Now that we have the mug, then we proceed with the ingredients such as sugar, cream, milk and coffee which needs to be hold on different storages and this will be on the coffee conveyor which will rotate accordingly to pour the ingredients individually on the cup. Once done, it needs to be poured with hot water and Coffee Panda has a water heater inside of it which pour hot water in the mug though the tubes installed inside its left hand. Finally, Coffee Panda will Stir the coffee with the stirrer in its right hand which it will also leave on the mug as to allow me to also stir the coffee if I want to and would replace it with a new stirrer for sanitary purpose then it will go and serve me this hot coffee that will power me up to proceed with my days work.
Aside from the functionalities that I have mentioned, there are particular mechanisms that it needs to have and this were:
Rechargeable Battery - In order to work on its task autonomously, Coffee Panda needs to have a rechargeable battery so it can work even without plugging on direct power source and even on times when electricity is not available.
Microphone - I also designed Coffee Panda to be voice- automated which means that by making making voice commands which it can hear through the microphone, such as "Coffee Panda, please make me Cappuccino.", it will work on its task without me needing to go close in to it or press any type of buttons.
Speaker - At the same time, would it not be cool if our robots could also produce some replies to us as we make our command? Coffee Panda was equipped with speaker that will allows it to inform me when it has started making the coffee and when it was finished making the coffee.
Wheels - Instead of feet, I designed Coffee Panda with wheels that it can use to navigate and serve me the coffee by itself as long as I was within a flat space. The reason behind this was because, robots with feet includes difficult programming just to be able to walk and might require more time than the actual project.
Camera - Coffee Panda was equipped with at least 4 cameras that was placed on 4 directions in order to allow it to process properly pour the water in the mug and stir the coffee. At the same time, it will also allow it to see the terrain where it will move in order to serve the coffee to me to avoid possible obstructions on the way such as furniture and other people.
With the initial materials and functionalities that I mentioned above, the cost of making this robot would probably reach more or less ten thousands of dollars and the cost for developing this project might probably be another separate thing and there are many other materials that will be needed aside from the ones I said below so chances are it will not be produced for commercial use but that was the case for many robots today and despite this, I would still dream to be able to make one someday.
That was all from me. Thank you and see you at the next one.
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