Aylesbury Automation, which first opened in the town in 1905, has made a robot to advertise Asahi beer in the UK.

The world's first robotic barman, now named Mr Asahi, was made in just eight weeks after a month of designing. It will be placed in one of the country's biggest department stores, Selfridges in both London and Manchester in the coming weeks.

Managing director David Manby said: "We were approached by Sublime whose customer is the brewery Shepherd Neame, who I believe are the distributor for Asahi beer.

"It was fantastic to be chosen. It's been very exciting and it's something new for us and sometimes we have been working seven days a week to turn it around in time."

The robot sits behind a turntable where it picks up beer bottles from the feed conveyor. The robot's right arm then removes the bottle top with an opener which is fixed to its hand.

The hands of the robot have to be adjusted when picking up the shot glasses, as they are easily crushed. There is a beer pump to the side of the robot that dispenses the beer into the pint and shot glasses.

"The robot will take a beer bottle, open it and present it to the customers. It will pour a half pint into a glass or it will pour a little shot glass. Its official launch is in Selfridges in London on July 2," said Mr Manby.

Aylesbury Automation and it's team of designers and engineers have used robotics, incorporated with animatronics to develop the robot. It has taken 200 man hours to assemble him.

Some of the advantages of using Mr Asahi include his ability to serve customers consistently in under two minutes - saving the average person 13 minutes waiting for their drinks at the bar. He is life size and weighs a quarter of a ton, but manages to serve customers with a smile. Mr Asahi can reply to questions from his customers via an integrated vocal speaker system which is operator controlled and has over 500 vocal effects.

Mr Manby added: "The two robots in the arms work in tandem with individual controls linked electronically

The company started off in 1905 as The Bifurcated and Tubular Rivet Company and they still make rivets and rivet setting machines today as they did then. More recently they have introduced robotics, which is the main aspects they used in this project.

In it's heyday, the company used to employ more than 1,000 people.

Mr Asahi can be seen on tour in multiple grocers and bars throughout the country, starting with the visit to Oxford Street's Selfridges in London on July 2.

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