## Inspiration: The BarBot team came together with such diverse skill sets. We wanted to create a project that would highlight each member's various expertise. This expertise includes Internet of Things, hardware, and web development. After a long ideation session, we came up with BarBot. This robotic bartender will serve as a great addition to forward-seeing bars, where the drink dispensing and delivery process is automated.

## What it does: Barbot is an integrated butler robot that allows the user to order a drink through a touch screen ordering station. A highly capable drink dispensary system will perform desired option chosen from the ordering station. The beverage options that will be dispensed through the dispensary system include Redbull or Soylent. An additional option in the ordering station named "Surprise Me" is available. This particular option takes a photograph of the user and runs a Microsoft Emotions API. Running this API will allow BarBot to determine the user's current mood and decide which drink is suitable for this user based on the photograph taken. After the option is determined by the user (Redbull or Soylent) or by BarBot ("Surprise Me" running Microsoft emotion API), BarBot's dispensary system will dispense the determined beverage onto the glass on the BarBot. This robot will then travel to the user in order to deliver the drink. Barbot will only return to its original position (under the dispensary station) when the cup has been lifted.

## How we built it: The BarBot team allocated different tasks to group members with various expertise. Our frontend specialist, Sabrina Smai, built the mobile application for ordering station that has now had a touchscreen. Our hardware specialist, Lucas Moisuyev, built the BarBot itself along with the dispensary system with the assistance of Tony Cheng. Our backend specialist, Ben Weinfeld, built the ordering station by programming raspberry pi and the touchscreen. Through our collaboration, we were able to revolutionize the bartending process.

## Challenges we ran into: The most reoccurring issue we encountered was a lack of proper materials for specific parts of our hack. When we were building our pouring mechanism, we did not have proper tubing for transferring our beverages, so we had to go out and purchase materials. After buying more tubing materials, we then ran into the issue of not having strong enough servos or motors to turn the valves of the dispensers. This caused us to totally change the original design of the pouring mechanism. In addition, we underestimated the level of difficulty that came with creating a communication system among all of our parts.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of: Despite our challenges, we are proud to have been able to create a functional product within the limited amount of time. We needed to learn new skills and improvise hardware components but never gave up.

## What we learned: During this hackathon, we learned to program the Particle Photon Raspberry Pi, building web apps, and leap over the hurdles of creating a hardware hack with very limited supplies.

## What's next for BarBot: The BarBot team is very passionate about this project and we will continue to work on BarBot after this Hackathon. We plan to integrate more features that will incorporate more Microsoft APIs. An expansion of the touch ordering station will be considered as more variety of drink options will be required.
## Inspiration

Old school bosses don't want want to see you slacking off and always expect you to be all movie hacker in the terminal 24/7. As professional slackers, we also need our fair share of coffee and snacks. We initially wanted to create a terminal app to order Starbucks and deliver it to the E7 front desk. Then bribe a volunteer to bring it up using directions from Mappedin. It turned out that it's quite hard to reverse engineer Starbucks. Thus, we tried UberEats, which was even worse. After exploring bubble tea, cafes, and even Lazeez, we decided to order pizza instead. Because if we're suffering, might as well suffer in a food coma.

## What it does

Skip the Walk brings food right to your table with the help of volunteers. In exchange for not taking a single step, volunteers are paid in what we like to call bribes. These can be the swag hackers received, food, money,

## How we built it

We used commander.js to create the command-line interface, Next.js to run MappedIn, and Vercel to host our API endpoints and frontend. We integrated a few Slack APIs to create the Slack bot. To actually order the pizzas, we employed Terraform.

## Challenges we ran into

Our initial idea was to order coffee through a command line, but we soon realized there weren’t suitable APIs for that. When we tried manually sending POST requests to Starbucks’ website, we ran into reCaptcha issues. After examining many companies’ websites and nearly ordering three pizzas from Domino’s by accident, we found ourselves back at square one—three times. By the time we settled on our final project, we had only nine hours left.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

Despite these challenges, we’re proud that we managed to get a proof of concept up and running with a CLI, backend API, frontend map, and a Slack bot in less than nine hours. This achievement highlights our ability to adapt quickly and work efficiently under pressure.

## What we learned

Through this experience, we learned that planning is crucial, especially when working within the tight timeframe of a hackathon. Flexibility and quick decision-making are essential when initial plans don’t work out, and being able to pivot effectively can make all the difference.

## Terraform

We used Terraform this weekend for ordering Domino's. We had many close calls and actually did accidentally order once, but luckily we got that cancelled. We created a Node.JS app that we created Terraform files for to run. We also used Terraform to order Domino's using template .tf files. Finally, we used TF to deploy our map on Render. We always thought it funny to use infrastructure as code to do something other than pure infrastructure. Gotta eat too!

## Mappedin

Mappedin was an impressive tool to work with. Its documentation was clear and easy to follow, and the product itself was highly polished. We leveraged its room labeling and pathfinding capabilities to help volunteers efficiently deliver pizzas to hungry hackers with accuracy and ease.

## What's next for Skip the Walk

We plan to enhance the CLI features by adding options such as reordering, randomizing orders, and providing tips for volunteers. These improvements aim to enrich the user experience and make the platform more engaging for both hackers and volunteers.
## Inspiration

As a team, we were immediately intrigued by the creative freedom involved in building a ‘useless invention’ and inspiration was drawn from the ‘useless box’ that turns itself off. We thought ‘why not have it be a robot arm and give it an equally intriguing personality?’ and immediately got to work taking our own spin on the concept.

## What It Does

The robot has 3 servos that allow the robot to move with personality. Whenever the switch is pressed, the robot executes a sequence of actions in order to flick the switch and then shut down.

## How We Built It

We started by dividing tasks between members: the skeleton of the code, building the physical robot, and electronic components. A CAD model was drawn up to get a gauge for scale, and then it was right into cutting and glueing popsicle sticks. An Exacto blade was used to create holes in the base container for components to fit through to keep everything neat and compact. Simultaneously, as much of the code and electronic wiring was done to not waste time.
After the build was complete, a test code was run and highlighted areas that needed to be reinforced. While that was happening, calculations were being done to determine the locations the servo motors would need to reach in order to achieve our goal. Once a ‘default’ sequence was achieved, team members split to write 3 of our own sequences before converging to achieve the 5th and final sequence. After several tests were run and the code was tweaked, a demo video was filmed.

## Challenges We Ran Into

The design itself is rather rudimentary, being built out of a Tupperware container, popsicle sticks and various electronic components to create the features such as servo motors and a buzzer. Challenges consisted of working with materials as fickle as popsicle sticks – a decision driven mainly by the lack of realistic accessibility to 3D printers. The wood splintered and was weaker than expected, therefore creative design was necessary so that it held together.
Another challenge was the movement. Working with 3 servo motors proved difficult when assigning locations and movement sequences, but once we found a ‘default’ sequence that worked, the other following sequences slid into place. Unfortunately, our toils were not over as now the robot had to be able to push the switch, and initial force proved to be insufficient.

## Accomplishments That We’re Proud Of

About halfway through, while we were struggling with getting the movement to work, thoughts turned toward what we would do in different sequences. Out of inspiration from other activities occurring during the event, it was decided that we would add a musical element to our ‘useless machine’ in the form of a buzzer playing “Tequila” by The Champs. This was our easiest success despite involving transposing sheet music and changing rhythms until we found the desired effect.
We also got at least 3 sequences into the robot! That is more than we were expecting 12 hours into the build due to difficulties with programming the servos.

## What We Learned

When we assigned tasks, we all chose roles that we were not normally accustomed to. Our mechanical member worked heavily in software while another less familiar with design focused on the actual build. We all exchanged roles over the course of the project, but this rotation of focus allowed us to get the most out of the experience. You can do a lot with relatively few components; constraint leads to innovation.

## What’s Next for Little Dunce

So far, we have only built in the set of 5 sequences, but we want Little Dunce to have more of a personality and more varied and random reactions. As of now, it is a sequence of events, but we want Little Dunce to act randomly so that everyone can get a unique experience with the invention. We also want to add an RGB LED light for mood indication dependent on the sequence chosen. This would also serve as the “on/off” indicator since the initial proposal was to have a robot that goes to sleep.