Addverb Gives Its Trakr 20 Quadruped a Robotic Arm, Taking Indian Industrial Robotics Beyond Inspection

Indian robotics company Addverb has taken another step in the development of its Trakr 20 quadruped, demonstrating the four-legged machine with an optional QDD robotic arm that allows it to manipulate objects after reaching difficult industrial locations.

Until now, the strongest use case for quadruped robots has been mobility. Four-legged machines can move through stairs, uneven floors, rubble, gratings and confined spaces that are difficult for conventional wheeled robots. Addverb’s latest configuration adds a second capability: once Trakr 20 reaches the required location, it can reach, pick up, handle and interact with objects using the robotic arm.

An inspection robot can carry cameras and sensors into a hazardous area and send information back to an operator. A mobile manipulator can potentially go further by operating equipment, moving objects or performing simple intervention tasks without sending a worker into the same environment.

From Robotic Dog to Mobile Manipulator

Trakr is Addverb’s Indian-developed quadruped robotics platform, designed primarily for industrial inspection, surveillance and operation in locations where conventional mobile robots struggle.

The company currently lists two versions, Trakr 5 and Trakr 20. The larger Trakr 20 can carry a payload of up to 20 kg and is designed to negotiate stairs, slopes and uneven industrial terrain. Addverb says the platform uses perception-based autonomous navigation and can be configured with 3D LiDAR, thermal cameras, night-vision cameras, acoustic inspection systems and other sensors.

A recent company demonstration showed the Trakr 20 equipped with the QDD arm, combining legged locomotion with robotic manipulation.

The machine is therefore no longer limited to travelling through a plant and observing what is happening. Addverb is positioning it for applications where a robot may have to reach an inspection point and then physically perform a task.

Possible applications identified by the company include inspection, maintenance, material handling and work inside difficult industrial spaces.

For refineries, oil and gas installations, warehouses and large manufacturing plants, this could be particularly useful in areas involving heat, chemicals, confined spaces or difficult access.

Built for Industrial Terrain

Industrial facilities are rarely designed around robots.

Older factories can contain stairs, narrow passages, cable runs, uneven surfaces and equipment positioned at different heights. Wheeled autonomous mobile robots work extremely well on relatively predictable floors but become much less useful when the environment itself becomes an obstacle.

Trakr approaches that problem through four independently controlled legs.

Addverb says the platform can negotiate slopes of up to 30 degrees, move through confined passages and cross surfaces such as rubble and industrial grating. Trakr 20 can also climb steps of around 180 mm and uses 3D LiDAR perception together with onboard computing for navigation.

The company also provides options for programmable inspection routes and autonomous charging.

The arm changes the type of missions the robot could eventually perform. A quadruped carrying only sensors might detect an abnormal gauge reading. A manipulator-equipped version could potentially be developed to interact with switches, handles or equipment once it reaches the location.

How far those capabilities progress into repetitive industrial deployment will depend on reliability, safety certification and the complexity of individual tasks. But the engineering direction is clear: Addverb is trying to move from mobile sensing towards mobile physical intervention.

Addverb Takes Its Automation Portfolio to Riyadh

The demonstration comes as Addverb is also expanding the international presence of its wider automation business.

The company is participating in the Saudi Warehousing & Logistics Expo 2026, being held at the Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center from September 8 to 10.

Addverb said it is showcasing systems including pallet automated storage and retrieval systems, tote and carton storage, intelligent sortation and autonomous material movement for industries such as e-commerce, retail, cold storage, FMCG and third-party logistics.

The Riyadh exhibition brings together more than 350 exhibitors from over 25 countries and focuses on warehousing, logistics, transport, material handling and supply-chain technologies.

The Trakr development and Addverb’s international warehouse-automation push represent two sides of the company’s engineering strategy.

Its established business revolves around highly structured environments such as warehouses and distribution centres, where autonomous robots, storage systems and software can coordinate the movement of thousands of packages and pallets.

Quadrupeds are aimed at almost the opposite environment: places where the floor cannot be assumed to be flat, access cannot be guaranteed and a machine has to adapt physically to its surroundings.

India’s Expanding Physical-AI Capability

Addverb, headquartered in Noida, has gradually expanded from warehouse automation into a broader robotics portfolio.

Its work now includes autonomous mobile robots, robotic storage systems, industrial automation, quadrupeds and Elixis, its emerging humanoid robotics programme.

The company describes Trakr as an Indian-developed quadruped and has positioned the platform for industrial inspection, search and rescue, security and other hazardous-environment applications.

Its move into manipulators and humanoids reflects a wider shift taking place in robotics.

The previous generation of automation was largely built around machines performing one predefined action inside a highly controlled workspace. The emerging field often described as physical AI is attempting to build robots that can perceive an environment, move through it, make decisions and physically interact with objects.

That is considerably harder than autonomous navigation alone.

A warehouse AMR needs to know where it is and how to reach a destination. A quadruped carrying an arm must additionally maintain balance, understand the position of the object it is approaching, coordinate the arm with the movement of the body and apply the correct force while manipulating the object.

Those capabilities are what make the Trakr 20 demonstration technically more interesting than simply attaching another sensor to a robotic dog.

Addverb is effectively working towards a machine that can go where ordinary industrial robots cannot go and then perform useful work once it gets there.

For India’s emerging robotics industry, that is the more important development. The country is no longer producing only automation equipment for predictable factory floors. Indian engineering companies are increasingly attempting robots designed for environments that are difficult, unstructured and potentially dangerous for humans.

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