Vulcantronics Ventures
If we look at the trend in India, there are many companies who have tried to automate its existing production methods, but the the number of companies that have dedicated themselves to automation, can be counted easily. Mr. Akshet Tewari straight after his graduation in July 2014, started his company Vulcantronics, a subsidiary of A.N.A. Infonet Pvt. Ltd. committed to build a future for technology and improve world’s lifestyle.
Automated lifestyle products being exquisite, relatively new and a challenging field, it has enthralled Akshet since his early childhood. His decision to pursue this dream is a natural result of his engineering in Mechatronics. Having been nurtured by prestigious institutions with multi-cultural environment and groomed by supportive parents, it was easy for him to make up his mind and pursue his “Vulcantronics dream”.
Vulcantronics’ vision comes from the deep understanding that automated products have immense potential and are the key for this generation and many more to come. They have spent all their time on Research and Development of the products since it’s inception. After much research, Vulcantronics brings you their very own automated bartender Barsys.
Automatic Cocktail Dispensing Machines
The concept of Automatic Cocktail Dispensing Machines mainly started in the Western countries. Having a bartender in the bar definitely adds up to the fancy part of it but when it comes to efficiency, the machines can perform better than bartender avoiding manual spillage, glass breaks etc. Also drinks will see precise amount of mixology with the dispensing machine. Moreover, during house party, corporate get-together, an automatic beverage dispensing machine will be a perfect host both aesthetically as well as with great drinks.
In most of the developing countries, the bar-tenders are trained by the restaurant/club or pub and are not professionals or they are self-proclaimed bar-tenders. The purpose of a perfect mixed drink is very precisely achieved with the help of the automated cocktail maker. The machine controls liquor/cocktail pour sizes and ensures portioned drinks and cocktails. This machine prevents product loss by eliminating over-pouring and spillage of liquid inventory as well as breakages due to bottle mishandling.
Currently in western side of the world, there are couple of open source cocktail making machines like barobot and automatic cocktail makers like bartendro, inebriator and somabar. All these companies are doing well in terms of product sale but are heavily depended on B2C business as western countries fancy things like house party and business get-together.
Barsys, the bartender
Barsys, one of the products of Vulcantronics, is an automated cocktail dispenser which acts as a tool for bar-tender to cater to the needs of the customers and act as your personal bar-tender at your home/office. The machine is user-friendly and is very simple to operate. A mobile interface based on Android and iOS platform ensures that the customers can choose/customize from over 1000 cocktails and even neat drinks. Barsys is designed in a way so that it can cater both B2B & B2C markets. The features of Barsys makes him (not “it”) a ‘quite’ interesting bartender.
- Aesthetic Beauty: Barsys is ergonomically designed to contain liquor bottles and non-alcoholic beverages. The entire machine is designed using human factors data which makes it simple and easy for the user to handle the operations. LED lights are placed along the machine making it interactive with the user. Suppose the user presses the make drink option from the touch screen interface, the lights blink red until the user places the glass on the tray. Also when the drink is prepared, the light blinks blue, indicating the drink is ready.
- Linear Motion: Barsys follows the linear motion traverse of the glass by making glass move through different stations and dispensing required amount of liquids as chosen by the user.
- Custom Application: Barsys has touch screen interface supporting android application where the user can choose to make drink from the existing database. Also the user has an option to make custom drinks as per his requirement. The application also has other features bringing the machine completely under the control of user.
- Cocktail, Mocktail and Neat Drinks: The machine can prepare cocktail, mocktail and also dispense neat drinks as per the requirement of the user.
- Inventory Management: This will be a huge benefit to the establishments like bars, pubs and other such businesses. The owners can access the complete data of their business at a click as the application used in the machine stores all the data. This not only allows the businesses to track their performances but also to improve their forecasting.
- Automation: The glass tray of the machine is sensor supported, allowing the machine to make drinks only if a glass is placed. The sensors in the juice containers indicate the level of the beverages and notify when the container is running out of juice.
- Power Failure Safe: In case of any accidental power cut, the machine restores the previous operation.
The SIN in Product Development Cycle
While developing such a first of its kind machine, the entire product development cycle is a huge challenge. It’s always exciting to work on an inhouse product from scratch, they have a theory, a product development cycle is more like SIN curve (trigonometry). Don’t mistake them, it is because you love everyday of the product development. But when you hit your first major hurdle, suddenly everything else starts falling apart.There are days when people just don’t get the solutions to their problems and longer it last the more demoralizing it is. However when you achieve the solutions, that feeling of satisfaction you get, it’s just unparallel to any other feeling. Hence it sways from positive to negative and eventually from negative to positive.
The Future of Automation
A company like Vulcantronics, which is fundamentally supported by a strong research and development, needs sufficient funding to develop the right products, As of now, Vulcantronics is very excited for their Barsys launch, happening within the next two months. It is going to be very exciting year ahead as Barsys is first of its kind and they feel it has huge potential to entertain people and serve people the right drink. They are also actively looking for funding to develop their future products and keep up with the momentum.