Into the lab: Saro Robotics joins Runway FBU's AI & Robotics Lab

The idea behind the lab is simple, and it happens to be exactly how we like to work. Builders take on real problems set by the industrial companies that own them, get access to real data, real sites and the operators who run them, and are pushed toward one real outcome: a signed pilot, a letter of intent, or an evidence-based no. Nothing in between.

For a young team building hardware for heavy industry, that kind of proximity is worth more than almost anything else. The whole reason autonomous inspection is hard is that it has to survive real conditions, not ideal ones. The lab puts us next to the people who live with those conditions every day.

Why this fits what we're building

Our robots inspect the parts of energy infrastructure that are dangerous, expensive or simply too difficult to reach with people. The problem we go after, corrosion under insulation, is one of the biggest integrity challenges in the industry and a leading cause of unexpected downtime and leaks. Catching it early depends on getting good data off the pipe, continuously, without scaffolding or shutdowns.

That is precisely the shift the lab is built around: industrial AI and robotics moving from screens to systems. Robots that inspect places people should not have to enter. Autonomy that helps assets run safer and smarter. Data that turns into decisions instead of sitting in a dashboard. We have three prototypes behind us, the most recent tested at Equinor's K-Lab, and now the job is to turn that technology into something the industry can put into daily operation.

“We've spent a long time developing the technology. Now we need to get it out into the market, in front of the people who actually own these problems. That's what the lab gives us.”

Closer to the people with the problem

Through the lab, teams are connected directly to industrial partners like Aker BP, NorSea, HUB Ocean and REV Ocean, with the explicit goal of shortening the path from demo and pilot to real use in operations. Aker BP's leadership has been clear that lifting industrial productivity depends on working closely with startups that build for real industrial environments, and that getting technology that actually works into operation faster is where the value sits.

For us, that access is also about credibility. We're a young founder team, and trust in this industry is earned by showing up, being close to the problem, and proving the technology in the field. Having the Aker system back the solutions we're developing carries real weight.

“We don't want to build this in a closed room. We want to develop it alongside the people who actually have the problem, on real assets, at the scale it was built for. That's what this gives us.”

What comes next

Over the next six months we'll be doing exactly what the lab is designed for: working on real challenges, with real data, toward a real outcome. There are hard problems to solve along the way, including how today's regulations treat mobile robots in areas where there may be explosive gas, and we'd rather work through those in the open with industry than around them.