Industrial robots have shaped factory floors for decades. Their applications have only broadened over time. They weld car bodies, assemble circuit boards and lift heavy parts with repeat precision. Most of these machines follow a rigid structure. They operate in predictable environments where space is open and tasks repeat in cycles.
Yet much of heavy industry does not look just like an assembly line. Oil storage tanks, ship hulls, aircraft fuel systems and nuclear facilities contain tight, enclosed spaces. Workers often enter these areas through small manholes to inspect cracks, corrosion or failing sensors. Each inspection can require hours of preparation, safety checks and operational shutdowns.
Engineers have explored snake-like, hyper-redundant robotic arms since the late 1990s. Academic papers have outlined systems with dozens of joints that could bend around obstacles. However, most remained confined to laboratories. Real-time control, hardware reliability, and commercial viability remain a challenge even today.
It was this gap that led to the incubation of Armatrix. The startup’s Co-founder Vishrant Dave, wondered why India hasn’t seen snake-like robotic arms in ground operations.
Dave, an aerospace graduate from IIT Kanpur, met Prateesh Awasthi and Ayush Ranjan, his fellow classmates at the institution. Their early interest in robotics evolved into a focused pursuit after graduation in 2024, and the trio formed Armatrix.
Instead of staying within research circles, they visited oil and gas plants, fertiliser facilities, shipyards and aviation maintenance hubs.
Across sectors, they found a shared issue. “All of these critical industries had a technical problem of access,” Dave says. Large tanks and reactors required human entry for inspection and repair. Even routine maintenance meant halting operations and sending workers into confined spaces.
He adds that Armatrix targets a very niche application, one that requires entering unmapped environments and carrying out operations within those constrained locations.
Today, Armatrix, a Bengaluru-based robotics startup, builds snake-like robotic arms for confined industrial environments. The company developed a three-metre proof-of-concept arm with 22 degrees of freedom (DoF). This goes much beyond traditional robotic arms, which contain around six to seven DoF.
Mechanical Arm with its Brain Outside
Its robotic arm measures between three and five metres in length and 50 to 150 millimetres in diameter (roughly the length of a large SUV). It threads through narrow access points and navigates complex internal structures.
Unlike conventional robotic arms, the motors do not sit on the arm itself. “The core robotic arm itself is a purely mechanical thing,” Dave explains, “We have a separate actuator box which controls and houses everything.”
This extrinsic actuation architecture allows the actuator box to be shielded based on environmental conditions. The arm itself contains no embedded electronics, which reduces risk in flammable or high-temperature zones.
The platform also supports modular end-effectors. Operators can mount cameras, inspection tools or other devices depending on the task. Instead of deploying separate systems for inspection and operations, facilities could use a single adaptable arm and change the tool at the end of the arm based on the application.
Controlling such a system required new software approaches. With 22 DoF, each movement can have multiple possible configurations. “We have built our reinforcement learning algorithms to control these kinds of snake-like arms,” Dave notes.
The team spent nearly two years refining algorithms that now allow real-time navigation and obstacle-aware motion.
Funding, Pilots and Paid Trials
To move from prototype to deployment, Armatrix raised $2.1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by pi Ventures, with participation from Inuka Capital, Boundless Ventures, Boost VC, Turbostart and gradCapital. The company said it will use the capital to complete development, expand its engineering team and accelerate pilot deployments.
According to Dave, hardware startups face longer development cycles than software firms. Instead of attempting rapid scale, the founders plan staged milestones. “We break from the bigger goals into smaller goals and operations,” Dave says, noting the hardware and capital-intensive industry.
Armatrix also places itself within a small global cohort working on similar systems. “In terms of building snake-like robotic arms, we are the first company in India trying to tackle this particular problem statement,” Dave claims.
He argues that the market is large enough for multiple players, given the scale of industrial maintenance worldwide.
The company is preparing pilot deployments over the next 12 to 18 months across oil and gas, shipbuilding, aviation and nuclear sectors.
Dave points to a shift in how industrial and public sector buyers approach innovation. “No one says we’ll ever do free pilots. It will always be a paid one. We will pay you for the time that you’re putting into our product,” he says.
For him, progress depends on sustained attempts. If Armatrix can demonstrate that a flexible robotic arm reduces downtime and limits human exposure to hazardous confined spaces, it may shift how industries think about inspection and maintenance.
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