RoboPub Feasibility Study
DEGREE OBJECTIVE 4
Examine and assess a variety of applications within the field of robotics.
How it meets the objective: It assesses five commercial robotic bartending systems worldwide, identifies the market gap, and validates a competing cell design with simulation, safety architecture, and financials.
RobotStudio simulation of the proposed serving cell: an ABB IRB 1200 on a linear track, validating the 120-drinks/hour cycle time used in the business plan.
A full feasibility assessment of an automated pub concept built around an ABB IRB 1200: comparative analysis of every robotic bartending system on the market, a RobotStudio simulation validating throughput, a redundant safety architecture, and the financials to back it. Built a Business Plan and Proposal using RobotStudio and market/patent research.
The assessment
I benchmarked the field: Tipsy Robot (Las Vegas, dual KUKA arms, roughly $1M build), Macco Robotics (Spain, kiosk format, 140 drinks/hr), QBIT Robotics (Japan, cobot with facial-expression AI), Cecilia.ai (interactive AI kiosk), and the Craig Jennings humanoid beverage-server patent. The comparison covered robot type, customer interface, build cost, cycle time, menu capability, and IP exposure — then identified the market gap: no U.S. system serves both beer and food in a true pub setting.
The engineering
The proposed cell uses an ABB IRB 1200 on a linear track with a custom gripper to handle both chilled glass mugs and snack plates, fed by a conveyor, and to pour from a glycol-cooled draft system with per-tap proximity sensors for seamless pours. Safety is layered and redundant: ABB SafeMove, light curtains, and laser zone scanners halt the cell instantly on human intrusion. I validated the claimed 120 drinks/hour cycle time by building the cell in RobotStudio and simulating it — the number in the business plan comes from my simulation, not a guess. The full 21-page business plan and 11-slide investor pitch deck, including the IP analysis and a 2-year ROI case against a $1.8M capital plan, are on GitHub.