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AITHON Robotics – fast and safe infrastructure work with perching drones

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Project data

  • Project no: GRS-036/25 
  • Amount of funding: CHF 150'000 
  • Approved: 02.07.2025 
  • Duration: 10.2025 - 10.2026 
  • Area of activity:  InnoBooster, seit 2018

Project management

Project description

AITHON Robotics enables safer and more cost-effective access to critical infrastructure by merging aerial mobility with the capabilities of an robotic arm. Ageing infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels, and large-scale facilities increasingly require complex inspection and maintenance tasks often in hard-to-reach or hazardous areas. Conventional access methods like scaffolding and bridge inspection vehicles are slow, costly, and pose significant safety risks.
Our solution is a novel UAV platform capable of both free flight and stable surface attachment, allowing it to carry out high-force, high-precision tasks directly on vertical to overhead surfaces. AITHON’s drone performs jobs such as core sampling, ground-penetrating radar scans, sensor installation, and structural repair all while keeping workers safely on the ground and minimizing downtime. AITHON Robotics not only lowers operational costs but also improves inspection quality and asset longevity.

Status/Results

AITHON’s technology has completed two development cycles and demonstrated real-world feasibility in pilot deployments across bridges and industrial sites reaching TRL 5.
Over the next 12 months we concentrate on acquiring customers and gaining deeper industry insights to align its technical development with customer needs. The InnoBooster grant will directly enable us to accelerate these efforts, lower adoption barriers for early customers, and build a robust, certifiable version of the UAV paving the way toward scalable commercialization by 2027.

Links

Persons involved in the project

Friederike Biffar, Business Development, contact Aithon Robotics | contact ETHZ
Roman Dautzenberg, Team Leader
Timo Küster, Technical Development Lead
Timon Mathis, Robotic Engineer

Last update to this project presentation  12.08.2025