SirMixABot (An Automated Cocktail Machine!)

During my last year at MIT, I was the Hardware/Software Lead for an automated cocktail machine called SirMixABot, as part of the MIT Martin Trust Center start-up accelerator program, delta v! Starting with a design created by MIT mechanical engineering student Amanda Fike, I designed, built, and tested a working prototype of SirMixABot Version 2.0 using Solidworks (hardware design) and Arduino (to write the software to program a variety of cocktail recipes, and control the machine to make the drinks). While designing the new SirMixABot prototype, I created a number of complex CAD designs from scratch in Solidworks, making several modifications to the original design, and updated the software to reflect the new design.

While building the prototype cocktail machine, I used a variety of skills including laser-cutting, selecting and programming a variety of electronic sensors to control the accuracy of the movements involved in dispensing drinks, assembling the electronics needed for sensor control, and more. I took several factors into account in the design, manufacture, and testing of the prototype (using information from market research that I participated in gathering), including: cost, scalability, form factor/portability, ease of use, design (aesthetic), and more.

As a participant in the delta v program, I attended several delta v board meetings in which we (the SirMixABot team) presented the design of our prototype, and responded to critical questions about cost, market research, demand, proposed timeline, and more. I also helped draft a provisional patent!

Though I was unable to attend Demo Day, where SirMixABot was presented, you can check out the video for that here!