Quadruped robot from Inmotion Robotic: reconnaissance on four robotic legs

Mr Leuze, what can your robot do?
Put simply, it is a quadruped for the security, defence and industrial sectors. It is about reconnaissance, detection and documentation. Various sensors can be mounted on the robot to adapt it to different missions. The idea is that in certain situations responders take a quadruped along to use it, for example, for protection, reconnaissance or micro-logistics. It can carry 25 kilos on its back, which means it can transport rockets, for example. Its range is twelve kilometres; it can move across difficult terrain, climb stairs, move around inside buildings and tackle gradients of up to 45 degrees. And it walks autonomously to set points. You program the mission and say “go”, then it automatically recognises obstacles, walks around them and arrives at the destination.

So a drone on the ground?
In a transparent battlespace full of drones it is becoming increasingly difficult to transport materiel to the forces. I always say: the air is getting thin, drones are becoming ever harder to use. But on the ground our robots are hard to detect. In addition, they get a skin so that they cannot be detected multispectrally.

Who builds the robot?
It is a cooperation with Deep Robotics. Deep Robotics designed the body and we do everything relating to control, software and sensors. Everything that is mission-critical we build in Germany. The goal is for the entire robot to be built in Germany from next year.

How did you come up with the idea of working on a four-legged robot?
I worked in the security industry for 30 years, and it was always about how things can be optimised and automated. The first idea was a remote-controlled camera on the ground. Then more and more was added.

Where is the “dog” already in use?
We have customers from industry. First tests with police and military are also under way. But these are only tests, and nobody is using it in real operations yet. Because until now the technology was still somewhat too expensive. Comparable systems from competitors cost around half a million euros. That is justifiable for a test, but usually too much for larger applications. Our system cost only a third (note: 170,000 euros), and there we see more areas of application.

What use cases are there in industry?
Energy producers use our robot to inspect a plant, for predictive maintenance, to detect faults before they occur. The robot thus replaces engineers who go out and check whether everything is in order. Instead, the robot goes on inspection every day and records the data. It is also used on construction sites to document construction progress daily and compare it with the original plan.

What questions do authorities ask you about your product, for example here at Enforce Tac?
It is mostly about reliability, control, what tasks it can handle, how it copes with difficult terrain, and what the data security is like. Many are thinking about using such robots, because at the end of the day everyone is short of people. So in future I can train one operator who then controls up to ten such robots.

Why does the robot actually have four feet?
The quadruped is a solid system that nature gives us. It may look like a dog, but in reality it is just a robot with four legs.