ANYmal X Finally Puts Legged Inspection Robots Inside Explosive Oil and Gas Zones

ANYbotics began shipping ANYmal X to customers this week, giving oil, gas, and chemical plants their first four-legged inspection robot certified to operate in areas where a single spark could ignite flammable gas. Equinor and DSM-Firmenich are among the first recipients. For years the Swiss company refined the machine through an early-access program that put units through hundreds of onshore and offshore missions with BP, Shell, PETRONAS, Petrobras, BASF, and SLB.

Ordinary electronics and motors are kept out of these dangerous zones due to the possibility of sparks from the heat they produce. Fixed sensors only cover a limited amount of ground, thus human maintenance personnel must still physically traverse the routes while wearing protective gear, carrying gas detectors, and fumbling for entry permits. ANYmal X ultimately makes a difference by combining autonomous mobility with sensors that can see what the equipment looks like, listen to what it sounds like, and hear how it hums along before comparing all of that to the exact pump, valve, compressor, or pipe it physically inspects.

For four years, the engineers worked on developing a robot capable of successfully navigating these hazardous conditions, and they eventually filed over ten patents. To keep this walking robot safe in explosive environments, the AI computer and inspection gear are housed in a sealed nitrogen-filled cage. All twelve leg actuators and the batteries are enclosed in flameproof casings. The engineers have even gone to the trouble of isolating the metal elements with non-metallic shells, spacing them apart with conductive soled feet that ground out any stray static, and installing automatic shutdown switches to monitor temperature. To prevent anything from causing a fire, charging and data connections are routed through safety barriers. The Bureau Veritas has provided a certificate for usage in Zones 1 and 2 when gas flows in Group IIB and temperatures reach T4, and the IECEx stamp will be issued once the manufacturing line has passed audits.

The camera and other sensors on the robot’s swiveling head include a zoom lens for inspecting dials and valves, a 640 by 512 thermal imaging camera for detecting overheating, a sound-locating camera to detect leaks through sound, and a microphone to record the hum of machinery for later analysis. Its optional gas checking bit can detect specific flammable and dangerous gasses along the path. All of this adds up to a consistent picture of each piece of equipment over time, allowing reliability teams to detect signs of wear and tear before it becomes necessary to shut down.

Péter Fankhauser, co-founder and CEO, noted that many experts once thought a legged robot could never be made safe for explosive atmospheres, yet those same plants face the highest costs and risks. Andrea Corda, chief technology officer, described the process as checking every possible ignition source a walking machine might create and then removing it component by component. Units will appear publicly with SLB and Kuwait Oil Company at ADIPEC in Abu Dhabi in early November. For operators who have long accepted that the most critical equipment sat beyond the reach of robots, ANYmal X now walks the full route and brings the readings back.