On the 27th at the Embassy of Switzerland in Jongno-gu, Seoul. In the rain-soaked outdoor garden, the four-legged walking robot "ANYmal" from Swiss robotics corporations ANYbotics strode along, crossing its four legs like a large dog. Ignoring the slippery ground, it roamed through the garden's shrubbery, taking photos of trees it was ordered to inspect and recording them.
When a knee-high barrier bar blocked its path while moving, the robot paused, bent the joints of its four legs, and pressed its belly to the ground. It then crawled slowly in a low prone posture and smoothly passed under the barrier bar. Although a dog kept at the embassy darted around the robot without warning, the robot sensed it and went on its way without collision. True to its name, it seemed like an "animal that can go anywhere (Any)."
◇Handles rough terrain with ease… a "self-inspection robot" that detects gas and heat
ANYbotics, which publicly demonstrated ANYmal in Korea for the first time that day, spun off from the Robotic Systems Lab at ETH Zurich and was founded in 2016. In the field of industrial quadruped robots, it forms a two-top rivalry with Boston Dynamics of the United States. It has raised $150 million (about 220 billion won) in investment to date. It supplies ANYmal to extreme industrial sites worldwide, including U.K. energy corporations Shell and BP, U.S. ExxonMobil, and German chemical company BASF.
ANYmal is designed for industrial sites. At 80 cm long, 70 cm tall, and 50 kg, it is fairly large among quadruped robots, but it is built with lightweight, high-strength carbon fiber and aluminum to withstand harsh environments. It also features IP67-rated waterproof and dustproof design that blocks fine dust and can endure 30 minutes underwater at a depth of 1 meter. It is made so the robot can carry out its mission as usual even in bad weather, such as heavy downpours or dust-laden conditions.
Functionally, it is specialized in "data collection" beyond simple movement. Equipped with a thermal camera, gas leak detector, and high-performance microphone, the robot identifies facility overheating, gas leaks, and abnormal noises in real time. Su Yang, head of sales for the Asia-Pacific region at ANYbotics, said, "In the past, large refinery accidents had preceding signs such as pipe corrosion or leaks, but because these records were scattered across individual reports, major risks were not recognized in advance," and noted, "ANYmal immediately integrates robot-collected data into a central system, helping operators spot and prevent signs of accidents at a glance."
◇A "caged drone" that pinpoints location to the centimeter without GPS
Indoors at the embassy, a black sphere about the size of a soccer ball was slicing through the air. Even when the demonstrator pushed the drone in flight by hand or bumped it with the body, the aircraft did not crash; it bounced back like a roly-poly and quickly regained balance to continue flying. It was the "ELIOS 3" from Swiss drone corporations Flyability, and unlike typical drones with exposed propellers that are prone to crashing when hitting obstacles, a round carbon-fiber protective frame (cage) enveloped the entire aircraft, absorbing impacts and keeping it airborne.
Flyability pioneered the indoor industrial drone market with the contrarian idea of a "collision-tolerant drone." It is corporations that spun off from EPFL in 2014. It currently holds the No. 1 global market share in inspections of enclosed spaces where GPS (Global Positioning System) does not reach, such as nuclear power plants and sewers.
Corporations in more than 40 countries and over 1,500 companies worldwide are their customers. Domestic corporations such as Samsung, POSCO, Hanwha Ocean, GS Caltex, and S-Oil are also deploying this drone to inspect facilities where direct human entry carries risks such as exposure to toxic gas or collapse.
Their insistence on a "caged drone" stems from the fact that in industrial sites entangled with complex pipes and rebar, perfectly avoiding obstacles is virtually impossible. Thanks to the collision-tolerant design, drone pilots can, for example, press the drone close to or roll it along walls inside dark chimneys or storage tanks that are hard for people to access, focusing on capturing fine cracks and the like.
During the demonstration, a "signal return" function drew particular attention, in which the drone retraces its path and returns on its own even if communication is cut off. Even when the signal drops in maze-like underground tunnels or behind thick concrete walls, the drone remembers the safest route and autonomously returns to a point where communication is possible.
Yun Jusu, general manager at Flyability, said, "Through SLAM technology, in which the LiDAR sensor mounted on the drone draws a three-dimensional (3D) map in real time, it pinpoints its location to the centimeter without GPS," and added, "Next year, we plan to commercialize technology that measures steel plate thickness during flight by equipping the drone with an ultrasonic sensor."
Their decision to hold a first demonstration event in Korea is tied to the sharp rise in domestic industrial demand for robots. As expectations for industrial safety rise with measures such as strengthening the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, they aim to target the needs of domestic corporations seeking to replace dangerous tasks with robots.
Andrea Clementi, head of the Swiss Business Hub Korea at the Embassy of Switzerland, which organized the event, said, "Korea leads the world in both robot adoption and industrial scale," and added, "When Switzerland's precise robotics technology is deployed on Korea's massive manufacturing floors to solve real-world challenges, true industrial automation will be complete."