ANYbotics AG

Switzerland's ANYbotics AG is a spin-off of ETH Zurich, that is, a company that grew out of a university lab where quadruped robots for walking over uneven terrain were developed. The founding date is not given in available sources, so we do not state it. What we do know is where the company is heading: it builds the ANYmal quadruped platform, intended for autonomous inspection of industrial sites such as pipelines, power installations and production plants. These are tasks in which a person would have to enter hard-to-reach or dangerous spaces. ANYbotics is trying to turn autonomous inspection into a service for energy, industry and mining, the customer groups named in the model description. The company has raised $50 million in funding to date. The broader background of quadruped uses in industry is given in “Quadruped Robots: Uses in Inspection, Security and Industry”, and their best-known representative is covered in “Boston Dynamics Spot: Price, Uses and Availability in Poland”. For industrial companies such a robot is not a toy but a tool: it is meant to relieve people in places where entry carries risk and to deliver repeatable data from rounds at fixed times. It is this logic, not a showy demo, that stands behind ANYmal's positioning.

In our catalog ANYbotics is represented by a single entry: ANYbotics ANYmal D. It is a Swiss inspection robot with a 10 kg payload, IP67 protection and a thermal camera, aimed at industry, energy, utilities and mining. The use is autonomous inspection of installations. The model is formally on sale but has no public price, which is typical for inspection robots sold on a project basis, not from a catalog: the customer gets the robot together with software, integration and training. IP67 means dust-tightness and resistance to brief immersion, which makes sense where the robot has to work in rain and on wet platforms. The closest counterpart is the Boston Dynamics Spot, and another specialist quadruped is the Ghost Robotics Vision 60. As a cheaper alternative for research and education, see the Unitree Go2. We describe the whole category in the quadruped robots section, and uses on the factory and security pages. With this sales model, a request for quotation should cover not only the robot but also training, mission-planning software and service terms. Uses in energy and mining usually require additional certification for explosion-hazard zones, which you have to ask the manufacturer about separately.

Against Boston Dynamics and its Spot robot, ANYbotics positions itself more narrowly: stronger in industrial inspection than in multipurpose use. That can be an advantage for customers who want a ready-made industry solution, not a platform to develop on their own. Rivals in the quadruped segment also include Ghost Robotics, focused on specialist uses, Unitree Robotics with cheaper models, and DEEP Robotics. The company's funding stands at $50 million; we have no data on valuation, headcount or customer names, so we do not list them. The project-sales model means that a robot's value is decided not by a list price but by the total cost of deployment and upkeep. The general method for such a calculation is shown in “Humanoid Robot TCO: How to Calculate Total Cost”; although it concerns a humanoid, the arithmetic is analogous. For the buyer this means that in choosing, real inspection tasks should be matched against what the robot can measure, with its thermal camera and other sensors, rather than against the brand's general reputation.

We have no information on the availability of ANYmal in Poland or on a local distributor. We also know of no deployments at Polish power or mining sites. Because sales are project-based, an interested company would have to contact the Swiss firm directly. In the roundup “Polish Robotics Companies” you can check who in the country could act as an integrator. In practice the most sensible route is a joint pilot with an integrator experienced in the energy industry, not a blind purchase. We also know of no Polish pilots, so the first project in the country would mean pioneering work on the customer's side.

ANYmal D is a serious tool for industrial inspection, but not a product to buy off the shelf: price on request, no Polish partner. If you work in energy or mining, it is worth asking for a demonstration and comparing it with Spot. For simpler educational uses, the cheaper Unitree Go2 is enough. If you are planning to automate inspection rounds, start with the list of measurement points and the conditions on site; that is what will decide whether ANYmal is the right choice.