Founded in 2016, Square Robot is an innovator in robotic inspection of above-ground tanks used to store diesel fuel, gasoline, kerosene, various oils and other products. Through ongoing development of robotic, data acquisition and data-processing technologies, Square Robot is uniquely positioned to enable in-service inspections for ensuring tank integrity and safety.

Eight thrusters are required to give the submersible robot six degrees of freedom in navigation. When a commercially available thruster proved to be incompatible with gasoline and other petrochemicals due to the materials used, Square Robot’s engineering team turned to a market leader trusted for its expertise in specialized motion applications: Kollmorgen.

The challenge was to design a submersible robot compact enough to fit into tight entryways originally designed to accommodate a single human, manoeuvrable enough to closely inspect the entire tank while avoiding columns and other obstructions, versatile enough to perform in fluids of widely varying weight and viscosity, and efficient enough to complete inspections lasting eight hours or more on a single battery charge.