Artificial intelligence-driven robotic inspection solution firm ANYbotics today announced it has raised $60 million to scale up its operations in the United States and globally.

ANYbotics builds and develops a specialized autonomous, AI-driven four-legged industrial inspection robot the company calls the ANYmal. Sized and shaped somewhat like a large dog, the robot can maneuver through multi-floor industrial facilities.

The new funding was led by Qualcomm Ventures and Supernova Invest with participation from new investor TDK Ventures bringing the total raised by the company to $130 million. Existing investors including Walden Catalyst, NGP Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Swisscanto and Swisscom Ventures also joined the round.

ANYbotics said it chose the doglike form for its robots because it provides them the best possible mobility in complex environments, such as those that might be found amid the mechanical confines of factories, chemical processing plants, warehouses and other industrial spaces. Unlike flying drones, which have trouble in tight spaces, or tracked robots, which have issues with stairs, four-legged robots can tackle obstacles with ease.

The robots are capable of following inspection missions autonomously and will map their environment using onboard sensors to determine optimal routes – including planning alternative routes. The robot doesn’t need an internet connection or human intervention to complete an inspection, even in multi-level environments.

ANYmals come with a set of sensors including a visual camera with 20x optical zoom, a thermal camera, an ultrasonic microphone and a lidar scanner for getting 3D views of the environment. It is also equipped with an ultra-bright spotlight for illuminating dark spaces. The robot can carry an additional 10 kilograms of equipment for gas sensing, for detecting leaks, and high-precision 3D reality capture, for generating digital twins of equipment and factories.

With the company’s inspection service, data gathered from the robots can be viewed by operators in real-time as analysis is completed through a user interface the company calls Workforce. It allows even non-experts to set up, verify missions and deploy robots in a few hours from any device.

Robots from ANYbotics have been put to use across industries such as energy, metal processing, mining and chemicals. Large orders from industry leaders such as British oil and gas company BP p.l.c., Norwegian energy company Equinor ASA, American aluminum company Novelis Inc. and multinational steel producer Outokumpu Oyj have driven demand for the company’s robots and led to the need to scale up its operations.

With an original headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, ANYbotics recently opened an office in San Francisco to support deployments to the company’s growing North American customer base.

The company said it will invest in hardware and software development to enhance the performance of the robots including built-in graphics processing units to boost faster onboard AI processing and advanced data analytics. This will help with condition monitoring and anomaly detection to help industrial operations improve efficiency and reduce downtime.

 Image: ANYbotics