The Tinkering has Begun

Yesterday we had our first tinkering session at metalab, where we successfully improved on Gaston's ability to sense an empty glass placed upon him.
Generally the sensor worked, but lately it seemed it occasionally got stuck or wouldn't be pressed enough - so we cut our way through layers of plastic foil, which protects Gaston's interior from liquid spills ... and that seems to have done the trick, it appears like there was just a bit too much cover on the switch and all test-runs we did following the surgery were successful.

Tinkering of another kind was done by Stefan Nussbaumer who is tasked with designing this year's ROBOEXOTICA's poster, and who is trying to get it done in time to have them printed prior to the ROBOEXOTICA extern show end of the month in Berlin.

Actually currently there is a very interesting tinkering project shown at the metalab which is unrelated to cocktailrobotics - yet. As part of the ongoing paraflows-exhibit, Vik Olliver from the RepRap project is showing the Replicating Rapid-Prototyper - a so-called von Neumann Universal Constructor which in the end will be able to reprodue itself, all in open source.

Also in the context of paraflows, yesterday evening the metalab was stormed by pirates who apprehended two of the king's men, who tried to get away with a chest full of data.

(All TinkerTank-fotos are here)

Update: Here's a video summary of the Gaston-tinkering -