ANYmal can carry modular sensor payloads and detect machine noises and gas leaks. Source: ANYbotics
Identifying and managing gas leaks at industrial sites can be costly and hazardous. ANYbotics AG today launched a new Gas Leak and Presence Detection capability for its ANYmal quadruped robot.
“Gas leaks are an invisible yet significant problem in industrial environments, especially in petrochemical plants, where many gases are fugitive,” said the Zurich-based company. “A single, undetected gas leak can cost a facility over $57,000 annually, which can quickly add up, beyond the immediate safety risks.”
Manual inspections often miss existing leaks and early indicators of pipework failure, such as subtle temperature changes or unusual noises, ANYbotics added. Because these inspections are tedious, inconsistently tracked, and often infrequent, critical equipment can go unchecked, allowing many gas leaks to go unnoticed and leading to costly and potentially dangerous situations.
“Our new Gas Leak and Presence Detection solution is a game-changer for industrial leak detection and prevention,” stated Péter Fankhauser, CEO of ANYbotics. “By combining ANYmal’s autonomous navigation with modular gas detectors and a 360° acoustic imaging payload, we’re providing a powerful, flexible tool that significantly enhances safety and drives substantial cost savings for our customers.”
“Our autonomous mobile robots [AMRs] can now detect the source of leaks, quantify the loss, and alert personnel in real time,” he said. “By extending coverage across the entire facility, we’re providing a level of precision and efficiency that reduces operational costs, improves safety, and lowers emissions.”
360° acoustic imaging offers improved precision
ANYbotics said its integrated gas detectors and acoustic imaging payload can precisely locate leaks and simultaneously measure ambient gas concentrations. The new mobile acoustic imaging camera is able to access areas that are difficult and costly to reach with traditional static sensors, it noted.
The acoustic sensor can detect a wide array of common industrial gas leaks, such as steam, compressed air, vacuum, toxic gases, and hydrocarbons, explained ANYbotics.
The company claimed that ANYmal enables inspection and maintenance teams to not only detect more leaks, but also to proactively identify vulnerabilities in critical pipework, helping to prevent future leaks.
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Modular payload senses different gases
The new Gas Presence Detection solution’s modular design allows users to swap in detectors for different gases, including oxygen, hydrocarbons, ammonia, and many others, and then calibrate them on site.
“The platform supports mounting up to two detectors at the same time, and these are hot-swappable by the customer, enabling fast adaptation to different mission needs within gas-storage facilities,” Fankhauser told The Robot Report.
“When used together, the acoustic imager and gas detectors complement each other — while the acoustic imager pinpoints the exact source of a pressurized gas leak, the gas detectors measure the concentration of gases present in the environment,” he explained. “This combined setup enables both localization and quantification of gas anomalies.”
“Customers can combine sensor payloads on ANYmal to meet their specific inspection needs,” added Fankhauser. “The robot supports a multi-sensor configuration, allowing integration of gas detectors, acoustic imagers, thermal cameras, visual cameras, high-precision scanners, and microphones.”
“This inherent flexibility allows ANYmal to continuously monitor various gas concentrations around its body during both autonomous and teleoperated missions, greatly enhancing safety in areas where static sensors offer limited coverage,” ANYbotics asserted. “The system also provides customer-configurable thresholds that trigger an alarm upon overexposure.”
By detecting fugitive gases and automating inspections in hazardous and hard-to-reach areas, ANYmal can reduce human exposure to dangerous substances and environments, said the company.
ANYmal can regularly inspect hazardous or difficult-to-reach areas. Source: ANYbotics
Gas Presence Detection system feeds insights
The Gas Leak and Presence Detection system can identify partial discharge events and mechanical anomalies. It then quantifies the rate of detected emissions and delivers actionable insights directly into Data Navigator, ANYbotics’ inspection data and asset management platform launched in February.
“Beyond fully certified hardware integration, the system is fully embedded into ANYbotics’ data platform and mission interface, enabling automatic detection, alerting, and visualization,” said Fankhauser. “Gas-related anomalies are contextualized on the facility’s floor plan, allowing operators to localize issues quickly and analyze them alongside other inspection data such as visual and thermal imagery.”
“Data Navigator is more asset-centric — the data just happens to be collected by the robots,” he said. “The user who operates the robot is not necessarily the same as the person who is interested in the data. The platform uses language for maintenance engineers and plant managers.”
ANYmal can autonomously inspect facilities and assets more frequently and regularly than manual inspections to generate valuable trend data. That data can help companies plan for predictive maintenance and more proactive repairs so they can comply with environmental regulations, get operational cost savings, and contribute to sustainability targets, said ANYbotics.
The Gas Leak and Presence Detection capability is available as an add-on to the standard ANYmal platform. Customers can add it as part of a payload configuration, depending on their inspection requirements.
ANYbotics offers flexible business models as part of its robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) subscription setup, with Gas Leak and Presence Detection use cases starting at less than $1,000 per month.
The Gas Leak and Presence Detection solution feeds actionable data to the Data Navigator platform. Source: ANYbotics
Early adopters already see savings, says ANYbotics
Some ANYbotics customers in the energy, metals, mining, and oil and gas sectors have already used the new Gas Leak and Presence Detection solution. Early adopters such as Outokumpu Oyj and DSM-Firmenich AG said the system is demonstrating benefits.
“Gas Leak Detection fits into our data and maintenance strategy and gives us peace of mind so we can focus on value-creating tasks,” said Patrik d’Allens, head of technical services at DSM-Firmenich.
Founded in 2009, ANYbotics has designed ANYmal for autonomous operations, advanced mobility, and real-time data collection in challenging industrial environments. It said the legged robots are suitable for routine inspections, remote operations, or predictive maintenance.
The company has about 200 employees and offices in Zurich and San Francisco. ANYbotics has raised more than $130 million from European and Silicon Valley investors, including $60 million in December 2024, to fund its global expansion.
“The market is receptive to building companies that are sustainable in the long term, not just around AI,” Fankhauser said. “We’re not just focused on shipping robots, but also on getting our boots on the ground, integrating software and hardware, and getting certifications in cybersecurity. We’re also doubling down on the North American market and expanding our value proposition with new capabilities.”
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