Zurich-based Voliro AG has secured the Sixpec intellectual property rights. With this acquisition, Voliro aims to improve its options for inspecting industrial facilities more accurately and without causing damage, according to a statement. Corrosion detection is reportedly particularly relevant in this context. Voliro is a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and has established itself in the field of aerial robots for inspecting industrial environments. The team’s goal is to help these inspection drones achieve complete autonomy.

Sixpec, which is headquartered in Nunspeet in the Netherlands, has developed Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC) sensor technology. PEC is a sophisticated inspection method for detecting hidden defects such as corrosion under insulation (CUI). Using inspection drones developed by Voliro, assessments in critical industrial facilities across the oil and gas or petrochemicals sectors can be carried out quickly and cost-effectively. Voliro and Sixpec have already been working together for around a year. Giovanni Schirra, co-founder and PEC technology expert at Sixpec, will now continue working with Voliro to improve the solution.

“Sixpec's PEC sensor laid the foundation for a breakthrough in non-destructive testing,” Voliro CEO Florian Gutzwiller is quoted as saying in the statement. With this acquisition, he added, Voliro continues to demonstrate its leadership role and commitment to advancing aerial pulsed eddy current technology for CUI defect detection, while expanding its open platform to enable safer and more cost-effective testing.

In June, Voliro announced that it had increased its Series A financing to 23 million US dollars. The London-based venture capital firm noa, which specialises in technology for the built environment, was reportedly among the investors who participated in the round. In addition, UBS provided a credit facility. The new capital will now be used to accelerate the development of the next generation of the Voliro T platform, according to the statement.

In November, Voliro Chairman Roland Siegwart is speaking at the Open-i innovation conference, where he will discuss the potential of robotics. Siegwart is head of the Autonomous System Lab at ETH Zurich, which has spun off Voliro along with many other startups. He is renowned both nationally and internationally as a robotics expert, having co-founded more than half a dozen startups, among other projects.

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