BaristaBot

The BaristaBot was my final project for a class called Principles of Integrated Engineering. With a team of 5 people I created a robot to pour latte art. You place a cup with espresso into the cup holder, pour steamed milk into the funnel at the top, choose your art of choice in our GUI and watch as the robot pours you a custom creation. Not only was it a very rewarding engineering experience, but I also got to learn how to pour latte art myself! I primarily worked on the mechanical design of the project, but towards the latter half of the project I focused on integration and getting various parts of the system to function properly from software to mechanical bugs and electrical wiring. Mechanically the project resembles a 3d printer with 3 main axis of motion and an additional axis in the form of a tilt mechanism on the cup (this is to replicate the way latte art is traditionally poured). I designed many of the parts including the structural frame, linear rails and stepper motors, cup tilt mechanism, solenoid mounts, and funnel mounts. Every part of BaristaBot was manufactured in house and with help from a couple of my teammates I 3d printed, plasmacut, milled and lathed them.  For much greater detail about the projects systems and design process visit the project website here. 

Above you can see how the CAD for the project developed over time from left to right