It's a vinyl cutter. I've used those. TechShop used to have them. Theirs seem to be repurposed large-format HP plotter designs.

Vinyl cutters are good at doing one thing - cutting out patterns in vinyl or similar materials. You can make signs, stickers, and similar stuff. Some also be used as plotters. They're rather limited devices, though. At TechShop, they were not used much.