ANYbotics Delivers ANYmal X Legged Robot for Explosive Atmospheres

ANYbotics has begun customer deliveries of ANYmal X, which it describes as the world’s first legged inspection robot for explosive atmospheres. The quadruped is designed for oil, gas and chemical plants, where it performs routine autonomous inspections in areas that are dangerous for people.

The robot combines an industrial AI stack with autonomous navigation. ANYbotics says the system is intended to keep workers out of hazardous zones and turn inspection data into maintenance action.

ANYbotics spun out of ETH Zurich in 2016 and has about 200 employees in Zurich, San Francisco and Barcelona. It has raised more than $150 million from European and Silicon Valley investors.

Péter Fankhauser, co-founder and CEO, said four years of engineering and more than 10 patents went into ANYmal X. He noted that many experts had thought a legged robot could never be made safe for explosive atmospheres.

Fankhauser added that oil, gas and chemical plants are among the most hazardous and costly places to operate, making them a prime case for physical and industrial AI. He said the areas that matter most had been off-limits to such robots until now.

ANYbotics values the global oil, gas and chemical inspection market at $102 billion. It cites two main costs: skilled labor for manual inspection and downtime from preventable equipment failures.

Critical equipment such as pumps, compressors, valves and piping often sits in hazardous zones where standard robots are banned. Human operators still need protective equipment, handheld gas detectors and entry permits to inspect these areas on foot.

ANYbotics says undetected failures cost the world’s 500 largest companies about $1.4 trillion a year in preventable downtime. In oil and gas, one hour of unplanned downtime can cost up to $500,000, according to Siemens, while U.S. extraction workers face a fatality rate seven times the national average, NIOSH found.

Certifying a robot for hazardous zones is one of the hardest design challenges. Every device used in such areas, from radios to flashlights, must be explosion-protected, or “ex-proof,” with independent certification that it cannot ignite a flammable atmosphere even if something fails.

ANYmal X is built to comply with Europe’s ATEX standard and the global IECEx scheme. Fixed equipment usually relies on heavy enclosures or limited electrical energy, but a legged robot cannot use either approach.

The robot needs high-power motors, a large battery, exposed cameras and sensors, and autonomous docking, all in a frame light enough to climb stairs. Each component had to be certified without sacrificing payload, agility or operating speed.

Andrea Corda, chief technology officer, said ANYbotics repeatedly asked which credible event in a walking robot’s life could create an ignition source and how to prevent it. He said the company worked with certification bodies to answer that question component by component, resulting in a new explosion-protection approach for autonomous mobile robots.

ANYbotics assessed ignition risks across the robot’s service life. Its AI computer and inspection equipment sit in nitrogen-filled sealed chambers, non-metallic shells insulate metal parts, conductive feet provide grounding, and automatic cutoffs monitor temperature.

All 12 leg actuators and the battery are protected by flameproof casings. Charging and data transmission use energy barriers so no connection is exposed to hazardous areas. Onboard software monitors the robot before, during and after missions, and the design is tested against shock, vibration, corrosion, solar radiation and salt mist.