Industrial inspections involve numerous activities and processes for maintaining infrastructure integrity and safety. Industrial inspections are also essential due to legal and regulatory requirements. The inspections involve thorough evaluations for analyzing and assessing the work environment, infrastructure, equipment, and machinery for temperature, pressure, acoustics, obstacles, and other integrity issues that create potential hazards. Inspections are integral to industrial operations because they enable factory managers, machine operators, floor supervisors, and management to ensure infrastructure, equipment, and workplace safety. Inspection engineers and professionals evaluate industrial workplace environments for indicators of anomalies, threats and potential hazards. Inspection engineers and executives perform inspections of industrial environments to evaluate compliance with particular standards and identify needs for corrections, adjustments, and improvements.
Inspectors are responsible for evaluating the safety of a particular area in a factory by analyzing the temperature and environment for hazardous gases. Inspectors also assess equipment and infrastructure’s mechanical and electrical integrity by verifying their conformance to standards and specifications. However, technological advances, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics paved the way for autonomous robotic inspections. Autonomous and intelligent robots increase efficiency and operational safety in industrial environments while complementing the workforce. ANYmal is an industrial inspection robot for inspecting various environments without human supervision.
ANYmal is an industrial autonomous legged robot developed and manufactured by ANYbotics, a Swiss robotics company specializing in industrial maintenance and inspection robots. The legged robot moves autonomously in industrial settings and plants to evaluate its environment for infrastructure vulnerabilities, equipment health, path obstacles, and reading gauges for temperature and pressure. The robot can move autonomously in various settings, including in-door environments and rugged terrains, using machine learning to identify and memorize the coverage area. The robot’s legs enhance mobility and enable ANYmal to move effectively over obstacles, steps, and gaps while climbing up and down stairs. The flexible design and foldable legs also enable the robot to crawl into tight spaces that are otherwise difficult to access.
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation transformed the industrial operations landscape by introducing autonomous robots in various processes. Industrial inspection is also experiencing changes due to the introduction of robots like the ANYbotic’s ANYmal. The autonomous inspection robot is beneficial for automating industrial inspection processes while augmenting the workforce in evaluating facilities and monitoring infrastructure and equipment conditions. Numerous industries can benefit from ANYmal’s independent inspections by reducing costs and automating inspections, including power & utilities, chemicals, oil & gas, construction, and mining. ANYmal is essential for evaluating equipment, infrastructure, and workplace conditions, especially in hazardous environments, due to its complete autonomy.
Independent inspection requires complete autonomy and the ability to inspect various environments without supervision. ANYmal uses several features and characteristics to autonomously inspect environments, including six cameras for obstacle sensing, complex software and operating system, a 360-degree LIDAR for environmental mapping, and twenty multi-purpose sensors for inspection.
ANYmal learns from a human operator where to go and what to inspect for the first time before creating autonomous inspection schedules. The robot does not require additional costs for day or night operations and extended hours and only needs to recharge through automatic docking stations before resuming inspection tasks. ANYmal can perform numerous inspection and monitoring tasks while maximizing people’s safety and plant integrity through multiple inspection metrics. Some models of ANYbotics’ ANYmal, including the ANYmal X, are transforming autonomous industrial inspection by operating in hazardous and potentially explosive environments. The explosion-proof ANYmal X is ideal for hazardous and high-risk environments with a high probability of explosions and risks to equipment or human life. The robot significantly reduces costs and risks while meeting regulatory requirements for industrial inspections in hazardous conditions.
ANYmal is transforming industries and industrial operations by augmenting the workforce, reducing costs, and improving the safety of industrial inspections. The autonomous industrial inspection robot can inspect various industrial environments for over 90 minutes before recharging and extending its range. ANYbotics’ ANYmal is beneficial for industrial inspection because it enables companies to meet regulatory requirements without increasing costs.