WHISKY SNIFFING ROBOTS

WHISKY SNIFFING ROBOTS

You are not crazy for doing a double-take. Yes, that’s a robot dog… sniffing whisky barrels like it’s on a mission.

Here’s the crazy part: whisky loss is not always a visible puddle on the floor. A barrel can look perfectly fine and still be bleeding value for months or years.

Why? Because there are two “leaks.”

One is liquid seepage, the obvious kind.

The other is vapor loss, where whisky escapes as ethanol in the air, especially when wood shifts over time, a hoop loosens, or the stopper in the bunghole pops slightly out of place.

Traditionally, workers walk the warehouse and knock on casks. The sound tells you how full it is.

But Dewar’s warehouses are stacked upright, packed tight, and piled high to the ceiling. You can’t knock what you can’t reach.

So they gave Boston Dynamics Spot a 3D-printed arm and an ethanol sensor “nose” to patrol the rows, sniff each cask, and log vapor levels with exact locations.

in early trials, the robot flagged about 10% of barrels that needed remediation, meaning the “angel’s share” wasn’t the only thief… invisible evaporation leaks were.

The problem with version 1.0 is that it can't climb vertically and only reaches up to around 5 feet high allowing only the lowest barrels to be inspected.

Spider style robots and drones are being considered for version 2.0 of Royal Barkla.

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