What'll It Be? Robot Bartender 'Barney' Can Mix Dozens Of Cocktails, Tell Bad Jokes

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - A Swiss robotics company says it's invented a fully automated bartender that can mix dozens of cocktails and even make terrible jokes.

"The Barney Bar" was developed by F&P Robotics for hotels, bars and shopping centers looking to reduce human contact during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

"Corona [COVID-19 pandemic] will be over one day maybe, but there will be the next epidemic, so the gastronomy field will also look for new concepts," Chief Sales Officer Gery Colombo tells Reuters.

Barney can mix 16 different spirits and eight different sodas for customers who place their orders via their mobile phones, as well as offering beer and prosecco. Barney can also make jokes about being offered a role in the latest "Terminator" film, for example.

Although the expected clientele, restaurants and hotels, were initially not in spending mood because of the COVID-19 crisis, the situation is slowly changing, Colombo says. The Zurich-based company, which makes the robot and its operating software, has so far sold robots to China and Oman, where a mocktail-making robot works in a shopping mall.

Each model costs around 120,000 Swiss francs ($130,719). A barista version making different coffees has also been developed.

Other companies in Europe and Asia are also working on robot bartenders. But will they eventually replace the human bartender?

"Our goal is not to replace humans, our goal is to be a complement for humans," Colombo says. "Barney is much more a complement, if you want an additional entertaining factor, or maybe if you have a certain environment where you don't always want somebody at the bar but you still have a 24-hour service for your customers."