Yahoo – AFP,
April 23, 2016
 |
| A drone brings drinks to customers in the world's first drone cafe in Eindhoven |
Would you
like a drone with your cocktail? The world's first cafe using the tiny domestic
unmanned aircraft as servers has opened in a Dutch university.
The pop-up
drone cafe will be serving up all weekend as part of celebrations for the
"Dream and Dare" festival marking the 60th anniversary of the
Eindhoven University of Technology.
The 20
students behind the project, who spent nine months developing and building the
autonomous drone, aim to show how such small inside craft could become an
essential part of modern daily life.
"It
has potential as a useful tool for human kind. We see it as the next mobile
phone. You choose and you programme it like you want," student and project
leader Tessie Hartjes told AFP.
The drone,
nicknamed Blue Jay, which resembles a small white flying saucer with a
luminescent strip for eyes, flies to a table and hovers as it takes a client's
order, who points to the list to signal what they would like.
"The
blue eyes of the first drone load" up by scanning the list to register the
order, said Hartjes.
"Once
it's fully loaded, then the order is ready. And another one comes with the
order in a cup in the grip."
The cafe is
offering four different alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails, which are either
bright blue or green -- the same colour as the drone's "eyes."
The drinks
are picked up and carried by a set of pinchers underneath the drone, in a bid
to show that these aerial machines could be used to carry out delicate missions
such as delivering medicines or even helping to track down burglars.
Each drone
has cost about 2,000 euros to build, in a project funded by the university
which the students say aims "to give a glimpse of the future".
Thanks to
sensors and a long battery life they can fly inside buildings and navigate
crowded interiors, unlike other drones, which rely on a GPS system.
"The
Blue Jay is an intelligent bird that lives in complex, social
environments," the students say in a video presenting their work.
They
believe the drone's applications could be endless: as extinguishers to put out
fires, alarm systems to warn of intruders or mini-servants which would respond
to commands such as "fetch me an apple."
"We
believe that one day, domestic drones will be a part of society. One day, a
drone could be a friend," says one of the students in the video
presentation.
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