Asahi launches robotic barman

BEER. WE LIKE IT. If you're a regular reader of the INQ, that will come as no surprise to you.

So imagine our delight when we were invited down to Selfridges to what has to be an INQ journalist's dream gig - beer and technology mixed.

The product launch in question is for the Asahi Beer Robot, built by the Japanese brewer. It's a combination of animatronics and robotics, and quite simply, it serves you beer. Robotically.

It takes beer bottles off a conveyor belt, pops the caps off, then spins them around on a whirling wheel of malty goodness. It can even pour the odd pint, too, although with a little too much head for our liking.

Asahi reckons that the robot took eight people over 200 man hours to assemble, and that's after the parts had been crafted in both the UK and Japan. Control of Mr Asahi is all PC based, and the control panel we spotted looked like it was running Windows XP with a touch screen interface. Yes, even cutting edge robotic barmen prefer XP.

So check out the video below and see if you dig it - Mr Asahi is welcome in the Hermit's Cave any day.