Proving that there’s a convention for everything, Roboexotica is taking place right now in Vienna, Austria. The “festival,” as the organizers call it, cheekily explores the role of mechanized beings — called “cocktail robots” — in alcoholic drinking establishments…which actually might make it the best convention pretty much ever.

Chapok is one of around 30 robots at Vienna’s annual Roboexotica, which showcases how home-built machines deal with the modern pastime of hanging out in bars.

Robots were invited to demonstrate their skills in categories like mixing cocktails, serving drinks and snacks, bar conversation and smoking cigarettes and cigars.

“It’s all about the flair, the atmosphere and the personality that a robot can have,” said Magnus Wurzer, ducking a bunch of cocktail cherries launched by a robot in one corner of the hall to another holding a drink at the other end.

The cherries miss their target and hit onlookers.

“The robots shouldn’t be efficient,” Wurzer said. “They shouldn’t behave like they were in a factory, they should be cultured and urbane.”

!!! There’s more on the Roboexotica site, but unfortunately no discussion of the “Return of the Jedi” scene where R2 serves drinks on Jabba’s sail barge.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 11th, 2006 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Daily, Robots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.