Energy Robotics and the EIC Accelerator: Robots That Inspect Plants

Energy Robotics, a Darmstadt company co-founded by CEO Marc Dassler and four others including Oskar von Stryk, makes software that runs fleets of inspection robots and drones in industrial plants. Its EIC project, Edge AIR, set out to build "a robot-agnostic, AI-driven software platform that enables fleets of mobile robots to autonomously perform routine inspections", with on-board AI giving robots "an artificial form of 'common sense'", according to the final report on CORDIS.

The European Innovation Council granted €2,499,999 towards a €4.11 million project from April 2023 to March 2025. The report says the platform was tested in energy facilities and chemical plants, integrated with several robot platforms and customer IT systems, and added 2D and 3D scene understanding, anomaly detection, an "evergreen digital twin" and real-time "sense & react" modules. In October 2025 the company closed a $13.5 million Series A co-led by Blue Bear Capital and Climate Investment, saying it had completed "over one million inspections across five continents" for customers including Shell, BP, Repsol, BASF, Merck and E.ON. In May 2026 it rebranded as Korial.

Where Korial Stands Now

Korial now calls itself "the enterprise AI platform for autonomous industrial operations" for oil and gas, chemicals, power and utilities. In June 2026 it announced partnerships with Chironix and YCL Technology in the Asia-Pacific region and has won ISO 27001 security certification. Register records show a capital increase in April 2026 and new public grants, including €783,751 from a German programme for fleet mission planning and €300,000 of EU funding for vision-language-action models, according to North Data.

The Technology: Common Sense for Robots

The software turns robots from makers such as Boston Dynamics, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and DJI into one fleet that runs inspection rounds: reading gauges, detecting leaks and flagging anomalies. The company says operators can generate missions by prompting a built-in large language model. The EIC project added depth estimation for poor visibility and object-aware path planning.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

The project promised a robot-agnostic fleet platform with on-board AI, semantic navigation, an AI ecosystem and demonstrations across industries. The report documents all five objectives met in operational sites. CORDIS lists the project as closed.

1. Robot-agnostic platformDeliveredMultiple robot makers.
2. Edge AI modulesDeliveredSegmentation, anomalies.
3. Industrial demonstrationsDeliveredEnergy, chemicals.
4. Commercial scaleGrowingOil and chemical majors.

The Money

The Series A added Futury Capital, Hessen Capital, Kensho VC and TADTech to the two lead investors. Energy Robotics files accounts in Germany, most recently for 2024, but revenue is not publicly summarised. The EIC award was grant first, and no EIC Fund investment is recorded in the company's releases.

What Cannot Be Checked

Why Europe Should Care

Industrial plants depend on frequent inspections, and the report points to fewer qualified workers and the risks of hazardous sites. A European, hardware-neutral software layer lets operators use robots from different makers. The EIC funded that layer, and, the company says, large energy and chemical companies now use it.

The Verdict

Korial and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.