Bacardi Trials Robot Dog in its Warehouses
In a first for the scotch whisky industry, a new trial with Bacardi is exploring whether advanced robotics, such as robot dogs, could help identify small but potentially expensive ethanol leaks in aging warehouses.
The National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) is validating its own robotic sensing kit, developed at its Digital Process Manufacturing Centre (DPMC) in Irvine, on a Boston Dynamics Spot robot at the Bacardi-owned John Dewar & Sons maturation site near Glasgow. The initiative is also supported by the Scotch Whisky Research Institute (SWRI), according to the company.
The system uses a sensor, held by a 3D-printed arm created by NMIS engineers, to detect ethanol vapour levels as the robot follows a defined path through the warehouse. As part of the collaboration, Bacardi helped design the experiment and led baseline testing ahead of the trial, according to the company.
Robot Dog Inspections
The early-stage trial explores how autonomous inspection could be applied across multiple industries – from whisky to chemicals and energy. While the focus here is on whisky casks, the same sensing approach could also help improve efficiency on other routine inspection tasks in different manufacturing environments, according to the company.
Ethanol evaporation is a natural part of the whisky maturation process, which happens as the liquid sits in the barrel to age for a minimum of three years before it legally becomes Scotch whisky. This loss is known as the “angel’s share” and requires careful monitoring to ensure as much liquid as possible is kept in the barrel, according to the company, as well as ensuring safety.
Traditional inspection involves significant manual handling and reliance on visual cues, which is time consuming and prone to inconsistency. Robotics could offer a repeatable, data-driven alternative – though NMIS is clear this is an early-stage proof of concept rather than a live operational system. The next step for the project could involve trialling the same sensor in a different type of robot, according to the company, likely embedding the sensor in the robot rather than mounting it on an arm to deliver greater reliability and improved functionality.
“Our aim here is to validate our own sensing kit and see whether robots can take on this type of inspection work,” said Angus Holmes, whisky category director at Bacardi, in a news release. “The early results are promising, and it shows how manufacturing technologies being developed in Scotland are relevant across many sectors including the whisky industry. It’s been fantastic to work with Bacardi on this – a great example of a company embracing and contributing to innovative new approaches for the industry.”
“Officially opened earlier in 2025, the DPMC, based in North Ayrshire, supports the process manufacturing industries with next-generation technologies, funded in part through the £251 million Ayrshire Growth Deal,” added Andrew Hamilton, head of the Digital Process Manufacturing Centre. “NMIS is operated by the University of Strathclyde and part of the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult.”
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