ANYbotics

What it does

ANYbotics builds ANYmal, a four-legged robot that walks routine inspection rounds in industrial plants. The company is an ETH Zurich spin-off founded in 2016 ^[1]. ANYmal carries zoom and thermal cameras, an ultrasonic microphone, lidar and optional gas sensors, climbs grated stairs, and recharges at a docking station ^[2]. ANYbotics lists a 90 minute battery runtime and an IP67 rating for the standard robot ^[2]. The standard ANYmal claims no Ex certification ^[2].

ANYmal X is the explosion-protected version. ANYbotics says it is ATEX and IECEx certified up to Zone 1, gas group IIB, and rated IP67 ^[3]. ANYbotics calls it the first Ex-certified legged robot; that is a vendor claim ^[4]. The company introduced ANYmal X in March 2022, co-developed with PETRONAS since 2019, and described gas sensing for methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide ^[4]. In September 2022 it opened commercial orders and said first deliveries would start in mid-2023 ^[5]. In September 2025 the investor Climate Investment said ANYmal X would come to market in 2026 ^[7], and The Robot Report described the company as preparing customer deliveries ^[8]. In February 2026 ANYbotics said it had run several deployments of a prototype ANYmal X and would formally launch it later that year ^[6]. On 2026-10-06 the ANYmal X page still said 2026 specifications were coming soon ^[3], and we found no launch announcement.

Shift, launched in October 2026, schedules missions, analyzes sensor readings and sends findings to maintenance systems ^{[9] [10]}.

Who it is for

The target users are maintenance, reliability and operations teams at oil and gas, chemical, power, mining and metals sites ^{[1] [7]}. The safety case is reducing human exposure on routine rounds: walking hot process areas, offshore platforms, unmanned sites and areas where gas leaks are possible ^{[4] [13]}. ANYmal X is aimed at Zone 1 areas, where an explosive atmosphere is likely in normal operation and equipment without Ex protection should not be used ^[3]. The robot also adds hazards of its own: a battery-powered machine moving on stairs and walkways that people share. ANYbotics lists a hardware emergency stop and a warning light ^[2]; we did not find a published functional safety rating, such as ISO 13849, for its motion.

How it is deployed

Robots run autonomous missions from a docking station and can be teleoperated from a ruggedized tablet ^[2]. Shift can run in an ANYbotics-managed cloud with regional data residency, in the customer's own cloud, or on-premises ^[9]. ANYbotics lists a REST API and connectors to SAP, IBM Maximo, Oracle EAM, GE Vernova APM, Yokogawa and others ^[9]. Trade press coverage of the launch says Shift also connects to distributed control systems, APM and digital twin platforms ^[10]. ANYbotics says it holds ISO 27001 certification for its information security management system, covering point clouds, inspection results and operational data ^[11]. It publishes a responsible disclosure policy and links to a trust center ^[12].

Notable public customers and coverage

ANYbotics AG is based at Hagenholzstrasse 83a in Zurich ^[16], with an office in San Francisco ^[1]. Péter Fankhauser is co-founder and CEO ^[8]. Climate Investment, whose limited partners include Equinor, ENI and Petrobras, said in 2025 that ANYbotics had shipped over 200 ANYmal units and raised over $150M in total ^[7]. ANYbotics says Equinor deployed an ANYmal D at the unstaffed Northern Lights carbon capture and storage terminal in Norway to monitor CO2 levels, with the software hosted in Equinor's own cloud tenant ^[13]. Equinor itself publishes open source code that connects ANYmal to its robot supervision software, which is independent evidence of that integration ^[14]. In a vendor case study, a W.R. Grace staff member estimated a 1.5% production uptime gain at a German chemical plant, extrapolated from six months of operation ^[15]. We found no independent test of ANYmal X, and no reviews on G2, Capterra or Gartner Peer Insights.

Things to ask in an evaluation

• Is ANYmal X shipping as a production unit, and can you see the current IECEx and ATEX certificates, including the issuing body and full Ex marking?
• Which accessories, docking stations and payloads carry the same Zone 1 rating?
• What collision avoidance and person detection does the robot use, and has any motion safety function been assessed against a standard?
• How are gas readings calibrated, and how fast do alarms reach the control room?
• Does camera and audio data capture workers, and what retention and access controls apply?

Our take

Strengths

• Vendor-claimed ATEX and IECEx Zone 1 certification for ANYmal X targets rounds that legged robots without Ex protection cannot do ^[3].
• Named energy and chemical customers, with an Equinor deployment backed by the customer's own public code ^{[13] [14]}.
• Flexible hosting, a listed API and maintenance system connectors, plus a claimed ISO 27001 certification ^{[9] [11]}.

Watch-outs

• ANYmal X has slipped from a planned 2023 delivery start to a 2026 launch, and we found no launch announcement yet ^{[5] [6]}.
• We could not open the IECEx certificate database, so the Ex certification is recorded as a vendor claim ^[3].
• Outcomes are vendor-published estimates, pricing is not public, and no motion safety rating is published ^{[15] [2]}.

Best fit: Process plants and energy operators with long, repetitive inspection rounds who can pilot ANYmal in safe areas now and verify ANYmal X certificates and delivery dates before planning Zone 1 use.