Willow garage robot fetches beer, engineers rejoice

Not convinced that robots are the wave of the future? Maybe an ice cold lager will change your mind. Willow Garage has pulled off the ultimate engineering feat: teaching a robot to fetch you a beer from the fridge. As part of their summer ‘hackathon’ series, a team of Willow Garage engineers toiled for a week straight to develop a new demonstration of their PR2 robot’s prowess. They succeeded with flying colors. Not only can the PR2 select the correct brew from the fridge, it can deliver, and even open the beer as needed. That’s right, all you humans have to do is drink and relax. Prepare yourself for some major robot-envy as you check out the PR2 deliver much needed refreshment in the video below.

This is the third hackathon we’ve seen from Willow Garage this summer – the PR2 has already learned how to shoot pool and clean up after a party. It’s starting to seem like the Silicon Valley startup is getting ready to open the coolest robot bar ever. (O’Asimov’s? Bar2D2? Toasters?) I continue to be impressed with these hackathon projects, not just for their fun content, but for the incredible speed at which they are accomplished. One week’s work is practically nothing in terms of research and development, yet Willow Garage engineers consistently pull off some great feats. How are they are able to work so quickly? It could be that the open source library (ROS) provides a means of recycling previous work and enabling future progress. Or it could be that engineers will work harder when they have the promise of a liquid reward: