ANYmal can carry modular sensor payloads and detect machine noises and fuel leaks. Supply: ANYbotics
Figuring out and managing fuel leaks at industrial websites might be expensive and dangerous. ANYbotics AG at present launched a brand new Fuel Leak and Presence Detection functionality for its ANYmal quadruped robotic.
“Fuel leaks are an invisible but vital downside in industrial environments, particularly in petrochemical crops, the place many gases are fugitive,” stated the Zurich-based firm. “A single, undetected fuel leak can value a facility over $57,000 yearly, which may rapidly add up, past the rapid security dangers.”
Guide inspections typically miss current leaks and early indicators of pipework failure, similar to refined temperature adjustments or uncommon noises, ANYbotics added. As a result of these inspections are tedious, inconsistently tracked, and sometimes rare, vital gear can go unchecked, permitting many fuel leaks to go unnoticed and resulting in expensive and probably harmful conditions.
“Our new Fuel Leak and Presence Detection resolution is a game-changer for industrial leak detection and prevention,” said Péter Fankhauser, CEO of ANYbotics. “By combining ANYmal’s autonomous navigation with modular fuel detectors and a 360° acoustic imaging payload, we’re offering a strong, versatile device that considerably enhances security and drives substantial value financial savings for our prospects.”
“Our autonomous cellular robots [AMRs] can now detect the supply of leaks, quantify the loss, and alert personnel in actual time,” he stated. “By extending protection throughout your complete facility, we’re offering a stage of precision and effectivity that reduces operational prices, improves security, and lowers emissions.”
360° acoustic imaging presents improved precision
ANYbotics stated its built-in fuel detectors and acoustic imaging payload can exactly find leaks and concurrently measure ambient fuel concentrations. The brand new cellular acoustic imaging digicam is ready to entry areas which might be troublesome and expensive to succeed in with conventional static sensors, it famous.
The acoustic sensor can detect a wide selection of frequent industrial fuel leaks, similar to steam, compressed air, vacuum, poisonous gases, and hydrocarbons, defined ANYbotics.
The corporate claimed that ANYmal allows inspection and upkeep groups to not solely detect extra leaks, but additionally to proactively establish vulnerabilities in vital pipework, serving to to forestall future leaks.
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Modular payload senses completely different gases
The brand new Fuel Presence Detection resolution’s modular design permits customers to swap in detectors for various gases, together with oxygen, hydrocarbons, ammonia, and plenty of others, after which calibrate them on website.
“The platform helps mounting as much as two detectors on the similar time, and these are hot-swappable by the shopper, enabling quick adaptation to completely different mission wants inside gas-storage services,” Fankhauser advised The Robotic Report.
“When used collectively, the acoustic imager and fuel detectors complement one another — whereas the acoustic imager pinpoints the precise supply of a pressurized fuel leak, the fuel detectors measure the focus of gases current within the atmosphere,” he defined. “This mixed setup allows each localization and quantification of fuel anomalies.”
“Clients can mix sensor payloads on ANYmal to satisfy their particular inspection wants,” added Fankhauser. “The robotic helps a multi-sensor configuration, permitting integration of fuel detectors, acoustic imagers, thermal cameras, visible cameras, high-precision scanners, and microphones.”
“This inherent flexibility permits ANYmal to repeatedly monitor numerous fuel concentrations round its physique throughout each autonomous and teleoperated missions, enormously enhancing security in areas the place static sensors provide restricted protection,” ANYbotics asserted. “The system additionally offers customer-configurable thresholds that set off an alarm upon overexposure.”
By detecting fugitive gases and automating inspections in hazardous and hard-to-reach areas, ANYmal can cut back human publicity to harmful substances and environments, stated the corporate.
ANYmal can recurrently examine hazardous or difficult-to-reach areas. Supply: ANYbotics
Fuel Presence Detection system feeds insights
The Fuel Leak and Presence Detection system can establish partial discharge occasions and mechanical anomalies. It then quantifies the speed of detected emissions and delivers actionable insights immediately into Information Navigator, ANYbotics’ inspection knowledge and asset administration platform launched in February.
“Past absolutely licensed {hardware} integration, the system is absolutely embedded into ANYbotics’ knowledge platform and mission interface, enabling computerized detection, alerting, and visualization,” stated Fankhauser. “Fuel-related anomalies are contextualized on the power’s ground plan, permitting operators to localize points rapidly and analyze them alongside different inspection knowledge similar to visible and thermal imagery.”
“Information Navigator is extra asset-centric — the information simply occurs to be collected by the robots,” he stated. “The person who operates the robotic just isn’t essentially the identical as the one who is within the knowledge. The platform makes use of language for upkeep engineers and plant managers.”
ANYmal can autonomously examine services and belongings extra continuously and recurrently than handbook inspections to generate useful development knowledge. That knowledge may help corporations plan for predictive upkeep and extra proactive repairs to allow them to adjust to environmental laws, get operational value financial savings, and contribute to sustainability targets, stated ANYbotics.
The Fuel Leak and Presence Detection functionality is on the market as an add-on to the usual ANYmal platform. Clients can add it as a part of a payload configuration, relying on their inspection necessities.
ANYbotics presents versatile enterprise fashions as a part of its robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) subscription setup, with Fuel Leak and Presence Detection use instances beginning at lower than $1,000 per 30 days.
The Fuel Leak and Presence Detection resolution feeds actionable knowledge to the Information Navigator platform. Supply: ANYbotics
Early adopters already see financial savings, says ANYbotics
Some ANYbotics prospects within the power, metals, mining, and oil and fuel sectors have already used the brand new Fuel Leak and Presence Detection resolution. Early adopters similar to Outokumpu Oyj and DSM-Firmenich AG stated the system is demonstrating advantages.
“Fuel Leak Detection suits into our knowledge and upkeep technique and provides us peace of thoughts so we will deal with value-creating duties,” stated Patrik d’Allens, head of technical companies at DSM-Firmenich.
Based in 2009, ANYbotics has designed ANYmal for autonomous operations, superior mobility, and real-time knowledge assortment in difficult industrial environments. It stated the legged robots are appropriate for routine inspections, distant operations, or predictive upkeep.
The firm has about 200 workers and workplaces in Zurich and San Francisco. ANYbotics has raised greater than $130 million from European and Silicon Valley buyers, together with $60 million in December 2024, to fund its international growth.
“The market is receptive to constructing corporations which might be sustainable in the long run, not simply round AI,” Fankhauser stated. “We’re not simply targeted on delivery robots, but additionally on getting our boots on the bottom, integrating software program and {hardware}, and getting certifications in cybersecurity. We’re additionally doubling down on the North American market and increasing our worth proposition with new capabilities.”
