Bartending Robots Engaging in Personalized Interactions with Human Customers

Researchers at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy recently developed a new interactive robotic system they named BRILLO, particularly designed for bartending.

A Tech Xplore report specified a widely discussed employment of social robots that has thus far been rarely tested in real-world settings in their utilization as bartenders in cafes, restaurants, and bars.

While many robotics have been trying to create systems that can efficiently prepare drinks and eventually serve them, very few have focused on the artificial reproduction of the social aspect of bartending.

Robotics for Bartending Scenarios

In the paper published in the Adjunct Proceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation, and Personalization, the researchers introduced a new method that could allow their robot invention to have personalized interactions with regular customers.

According to Professor Silvia Rossi, one of the researchers who conducted the research and the project's scientific coordinator, "the bartending scenario is an extremely challenging one" to deal with using robots, yet it is quite interesting too, from a research point of view.

He added that, in fact, such a scenario combines the complexity of efficiently manipulating objects to make drinks with the need for interaction with the users.

Interestingly though, all existing robotics applications for bartending scenarios totally ignore the interaction part.

Interaction with Humans

Rossi and colleagues Nitha Elizabeth John and Alessandra Rossi believe that to take on a bartender's role effectively, a robot needs not just to be able to interact with humans but should develop a "profile" of users, as well.

This would enable it to personalize its interactions with regular customers, increasing the possibility that they will like and keep using the robotic bartending service.

In the end, explained Rossi, they think a so-called "barman" should not only be the one who remembers tastes but people's interests, too, as well as their daily lives. Just like human bartenders, they sometimes need to act as close friends.

Bartending robot BRILLO, which Rossi, John, and Rossi used, consists of a humanoid bust that has a pair of robotic arms that enables the robot to make drinks and a monitor-based face that can make different facial expressions. This invention was also described in the Companion of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.

The robot features a microphone, speaker, and camera, too, that enable it to capture photos of customers and pick up their body language. The robot also processes what the customers are saying and replies to them accordingly.

Robots' Ability to Process What Human User Tells Them

This innovative system developed by the team allows their robot to process what a human user tells them and their non-verbal cues to identify what mood they are in, how attentive they are, and what type of drink such customers prefer.

So far, the study investigators have tested a model of their robotic system in an experimental setting. Their preliminary results were promising; thus, they would now like to examine the system's performance in a real-world environment, where it will interact with many different human users.

Rossi continued explaining that they need to perform more experiments in real-world settings, allowing customers to interact with their bartending robot for more time to validate their hypothesis effectively.

Related information about robot bartenders is shown on Insider's YouTube video below:

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