Robot Dog Trial Targets Whisky Warehouse Ethanol Leaks

Published December 15, 2025 by John Fegan

In a development that would have startled both the angels and the barrels, the Scotch whisky industry has taken a bold step into a Black Mirror inspired future by introducing a robot dog o protect thousands of barrels of ageing spirit. This is not as strange as it sounds, although it is not especially normal either. Presumably robotic gueese guardians were deemed to tricky to control. To be fair, this is not an act of rebellion against tradition, nor an attempt to mechanise enjoyment. The robot is not there to drink the whisky. It is there to work, and we are assured it takes that responsibility very seriously.

The trial, a first for Scotch whisky, is investigating whether advanced robotics can detect tiny ethanol leaks, more poetically known as the angel’s share. The angels, having enjoyed centuries of free samples, have so far declined to comment on how things may change at John Dewar & Sons John Dewar & Sons.

The mechanical hound at the centre of all this is a Boston Dynamics Spot robot, currently roaming the John Dewar & Sons maturation site near Glasgow with the quiet confidence of something that knows it cannot be blamed for anything yet. It has been fitted with a sensor on a 3D-printed arm, lending it the appearance of a dog that has been allowed to shop for accessories without supervision.

The project is led by the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, whose engineers work out of the Digital Process Manufacturing Centre in Irvine and appear to subscribe to the reassuringly dangerous idea that if something can be automated, it probably already has been somewhere else. They are supported by the Scotch Whisky Research Institute, which quite reasonably asked whether whisky remains fundamentally unchanged once it has been smelled by a machine that finds the whole thing statistically fascinating.

As the robot trots methodically through the warehouse, it samples the air for ethanol vapours, following a pre-defined route and showing none of the usual canine tendencies to get distracted by movement, squirrels, or the sudden realisation that existence is quite strange when you think about it. Bacardi, who own the site, helped design the experiment and carried out baseline testing, which is the corporate way of saying they worked out what normal looked like before the robot started making it weird.

Ethanol evaporation is, of course, a natural part of whisky maturation. Over the legally required minimum of three years, a portion of the liquid drifts gently into the atmosphere and is traditionally blamed on angels. Sadly, angels are extremely poor at paperwork, which is why careful monitoring is required to make sure the whisky ends up in glasses and not as a long-term celestial perk.

Traditionally, warehouse inspections have relied on people walking long distances, scanning rows of barrels, and interpreting damp patches as best they can. This approach is time-consuming, physically demanding, and subject to the human tendency to miss things right up until they become expensive. Robots, on the other hand, are well suited to repetitive tasks and do not lose focus, motivation, or patience over time. Or unionise demanding tea breaks.

NMIS is keen to emphasise that this is still an early-stage proof of concept, but the early results suggest that autonomous inspection could eventually spread across industries ranging from whisky to chemicals and energy, especially in places where things leak quietly when no one is looking.

Future versions of the system may embed the sensors directly into the robot itself, rather than mounting them on an arm, making the machine more reliable and less like something assembled five minutes before a science fair, or as a last minute addition on robot wars.

Bacardi, a family-owned spirits company with five Scottish distilleries, Aultmore, Aberfeldy, Royal Brackla, Craigellachie, and Macduff, has spent more than 25 years balancing heritage with innovation. Most recently, it added three state-of-the-art aging warehouses at its Poniel maturation centre in southeast Glasgow, where the robot dog has been making itself very much at home.

Angus Holmes, Whisky Category Director at Bacardi, explained that while craftsmanship and heritage remain at the heart of DEWAR’S® Blended Scotch whisky and its single malts, technology has an important role to play in making the industry more efficient and data-driven. He also revealed that the team liked the robot dog so much they named it “Royal Bark-la,” proving once again that no matter how advanced the technology, no organisation, however serious, can resist a well-timed groan-worthy joke.

Andrew Hamilton, Head of the Digital Process Manufacturing Centre, said the trial aims to validate NMIS’s sensing kit and explore whether robots can take on routine inspection work. Early results are encouraging, suggesting that manufacturing technologies developed in Scotland may be useful across many sectors, particularly those involving valuable liquids with an unfortunate tendency to disappear when left alone.

Officially opened earlier this year, the DPMC supports process manufacturing industries with next-generation technologies, funded in part by the £251 million Ayrshire Growth Deal. It is delivered by NMIS, operated by the University of Strathclyde, and forms part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, a phrase which sounds like it should be flinging engineers into the future but is, in fact, somehow even more impressive than that.

For now, the robot dog continues its rounds, quietly sniffing the air, guarding the whisky, and reminding everyone that the future has arrived. It has four legs, excellent balance, and, crucially, no interest in drinking on the job.