Anybotics Enables Anymal Robots To Autonomously Open Secure Doors

(MENAFN- Robotics & Automation News) ANYbotics has partnered with dormakaba and LEGIC Identsystems to enable its ANYmal quadruped robots to autonomously pass through doors, removing a significant obstacle to facility-wide robotic inspections.

The system allows ANYmal to move between different areas of industrial facilities without requiring workers to open doors or operators to modify inspection routes around inaccessible areas.

For ordinary unlocked doors, a radar sensor detects an approaching ANYmal and activates a retrofitted dormakaba ED 100 or ED 250 door operator. The door opens, the robot passes through and it closes behind it.

Secure areas require a more sophisticated approach. ANYmal can carry a LEGIC security payload that effectively gives the robot its own digital access credential.

When it reaches a protected door, the robot requests access through dormakaba's exos access management system. Existing permissions determine whether the robot can enter, while its movements are logged in much the same way as those of an authorized employee.

Péter Fankhauser, co-founder and CEO of ANYbotics, says:“Our customers do not buy robots, they buy a solution to their operational challenges: less unplanned downtime and fewer people in hazardous areas. The impact is measured in how many critical assets our robots inspect, how often, and how reliably.

“Doors were a hard limit on that coverage. With dormakaba and LEGIC, ANYmal can move through doors like any authorised colleague, under the same rules and the same audit trail. The access-controlled door pilot has proven this works in a live operating environment, and we will now make that function available as an add-on across the entire ANYmal fleet.”

The technology has been tested at GE Vernova's Whitegate power station in County Cork, Ireland.

Brian Carroll, maintenance engineer at GE Vernova Whitegate, says:“The door passage solution allows ANYmal to move seamlessly between plant zones without compromising safety or security rules.

“By letting the door open automatically for the robot, we can automate routine inspection runs across the entire facility while keeping fire and security barriers intact.”

Jacob Euler-Rolle, product management, workflow integration at ANYbotics, says:“Inspection only delivers value if the robot can reach the asset, and a closed door was the one obstacle that stopped our robots from covering the most critical parts of a plant.

“Solving it with LEGIC and dormakaba means ANYmal can now inspect where it matters most, without rebuilding any infrastructure.”

The partners say the same approach could eventually allow autonomous robots to use elevators, gates and turnstiles.

David Fuller, chief innovation officer at dormakaba, says:“The joint pilot illustrates how access solutions are evolving beyond traditional applications for human users. By securely authenticating and authorizing autonomous machines, access management can become an important enabler for the next generation of industrial automation.”

Mehdi Elhaoussine, general manager at LEGIC Identsystems, adds:“This is about authenticating autonomous systems; issuing a trusted identity, in effect a badge for the robot. With this project, we are taking a major step into physical AI, extending LEGIC's secure access credential technologies from people and objects to machines.”

The access-controlled payload will become available for existing ANYbotics deployments and future ANYmal hardware platforms later this year.

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