ANYbotics starts delivering ANYmal X, a legged robot rated for explosive zones

Swiss robotics company ANYbotics has begun customer deliveries of ANYmal X, which it calls the world's first legged inspection robot certified for explosive atmospheres. The robot is built to meet the strictest safety standards in the oil, gas, and chemical sectors and is now shipping to industry customers including Equinor and DSM-Firmenich.

ANYbotics says four years of engineering and more than ten patents went into making a walking robot explosion-proof under both the European ATEX and global IECEx standards, something fixed equipment normally achieves with heavy enclosures or limited electrical energy, approaches that don't work for a robot needing powerful motors, a large battery, and exposed sensors. The company says it performed a full ignition-risk assessment and added safeguards such as nitrogen-filled sealed chambers for its AI computer, non-metallic shells insulating metal parts, conductive feet for grounding, flameproof casings on its 12 leg actuators and battery, and energy barriers on its charging and data connections.

Since 2023, energy and chemical companies including BP, Shell, PETRONAS, Petrobras, BASF, and SLB tested ANYmal X across hundreds of missions through an early access program before this commercial launch. The robot runs on ANYbotics' Shift operations platform, which schedules missions and feeds findings into existing plant systems like SAP and Yokogawa. ANYbotics says more than 50 customers already use its system to run over 120,000 autonomous inspections a month, and the full ANYmal X stack will be shown publicly for the first time at ADIPEC 2026 in Abu Dhabi.

Why it matters

Certifying a legged robot for explosive atmospheres opens up hazardous industrial inspection work, previously limited to fixed equipment or human workers in protective gear, to autonomous robots.

Source: ANYbotics (press release via RoboticsTomorrow)