A pilot project at GE Vernova’s Whitegate power station in Ireland demonstrates how autonomous inspection robots can operate within existing access-controlled industrial environments. By combining robotic navigation, secure digital credentials and automated door systems, dormakaba, ANYbotics and LEGIC have developed an approach that allows machines to pass through restricted areas without manual intervention. The project raises a wider question for the European security industry: how should physical access control evolve when autonomous machines become authorised users?
Autonomous inspection robots are increasingly being introduced into industrial environments to monitor equipment, collect operational data and perform routine inspections. Their ability to navigate complex facilities, however, has traditionally been limited by a fundamental element of physical security: the locked door.
In power plants, manufacturing facilities and other critical infrastructure environments, controlled access is essential for protecting sensitive equipment, restricting unauthorised movement and maintaining operational safety. For mobile robots, these same protective measures can interrupt inspection routes and require human intervention, reducing the potential benefits of autonomous operation.
A collaboration between three Swiss technology companies, dormakaba, ANYbotics and LEGIC, has demonstrated how this challenge can be addressed without bypassing existing access controls. At GE Vernova’s Whitegate power station in County Cork, Ireland, an ANYmal inspection robot was integrated into the facility’s access management infrastructure, enabling it to authenticate electronically, pass through secured doors and continue its inspection activities autonomously.
The pilot was presented at the LEGIC connect26 conference in Zurich on 17 September 2026. According to the participating companies, the system operated successfully over several weeks under real industrial conditions.

From Employee Credentials to Machine Identities

The central innovation is the integration of autonomous machines into established physical access management processes. Rather than granting unrestricted movement to the robot, the system assigns it a secure digital identity and applies predefined access permissions.
When ANYmal approaches an equipped door, it presents a digital credential provided through LEGIC technology. The dormakaba access management system verifies the robot’s identity and determines whether it is authorised to enter the specific area. If access is approved, the automated door opens, allowing the robot to pass through before closing again.
The robot verifies that the passage is clear before continuing its route. If authorisation is denied, the door remains secured and the robot must adapt its mission accordingly.
The three technology providers contribute distinct components to the process. ANYbotics supplies the autonomous robotic platform and navigation capabilities, LEGIC provides the secure credential technology, while dormakaba integrates access management and automated door operation.
Access rights can be assigned, restricted or revoked centrally, using the same underlying principles applied to authorised personnel. This enables industrial operators to retain control over access permissions while incorporating autonomous machines into existing security processes.
For the wider access control industry, the significance extends beyond the ability to open a door automatically. It introduces the prospect of managing robots as individually identifiable participants within an organisation’s physical security architecture, with permissions linked to their operational responsibilities.

Whitegate Pilot Expands Autonomous Inspection Coverage

The Irish pilot provides a practical example of how machine authentication can support industrial operations.
Two doors were automated at the Whitegate facility, including an access-controlled entrance to an electrical room. The ANYmal robot was able to request access, enter the restricted area and continue its inspection route without requiring an employee to open the door manually.
According to ANYbotics, the integration has enabled the robot to reach equipment previously outside its autonomous inspection coverage.
Brian Carroll, Performance Engineer at GE Vernova’s Whitegate power station, explained that the newly accessible room contains approximately 400 measurement points. These readings had previously been collected by an external contractor, typically once a year. With autonomous access, the robot is expected to perform the measurements daily.
The operational implications are considerable. More frequent inspections can provide maintenance teams with a more continuous picture of equipment condition, potentially allowing anomalies and developing faults to be identified earlier.
Automated inspections may also reduce the need for personnel to enter hazardous or difficult-to-access industrial environments for repetitive monitoring tasks.
Nevertheless, the reported results remain specific to the Whitegate installation. The project demonstrates the technical feasibility of autonomous access under real operating conditions, but publicly available information does not yet establish long-term reliability, cost savings or performance across different industrial facilities.

Access Control Meets Physical AI

The pilot illustrates a broader technological development in which autonomous robotics, digital identity management and physical security increasingly converge.
Traditionally, access control systems have been designed primarily around human users, credentials and organisational permissions. As autonomous mobile robots become part of industrial operations, operators must also determine which machines are authorised to enter specific areas, under what conditions and for which purposes.
This introduces additional considerations for security architecture and operational governance.
Digital machine credentials must be protected against unauthorised use, while access permissions need to reflect the robot’s assigned tasks and operational boundaries. Credential lifecycle management also becomes important: permissions must be updated or revoked when equipment is reassigned, removed from service or potentially compromised.
The integration further requires secure communication between robotic platforms, access management systems and door automation components. A weakness in one of these interfaces could create additional risks if it allows an unauthorised system to request or obtain physical access.
Physical safety requirements remain equally important. Automated doors must continue to fulfil their intended security and safety functions, including applicable fire protection and emergency access requirements. The integration of autonomous machines must therefore be assessed in relation to the facility’s overall operating procedures rather than treated as an isolated technology feature.
For European critical infrastructure operators, these questions are especially relevant as connected operational technology and automated systems become more deeply embedded in essential services.
The pilot also demonstrates an important distinction between autonomy and authority. Although the robot can navigate independently and request access, it does not determine its own permissions. The decision to grant entry remains with the facility’s access control infrastructure and the rules established by its operator.

Commercial Rollout Planned for 2027

Following the successful pilot, the three companies are preparing to make the technology available for broader industrial deployment.
According to ANYbotics, autonomous passage through doors without electronic access control is already available for deployment. The configuration involving secure credentials and access-controlled doors is currently available on request, with a wider rollout scheduled for 2027.
The partners are also examining how the same approach could be extended to other controlled infrastructure, including elevators, gates and turnstiles. Such applications could allow robots to navigate larger and more complex facilities without requiring separate machines for individual secured areas.
However, extending the technology beyond conventional doors will require further integration with the relevant control systems and safety mechanisms. Different types of infrastructure introduce distinct operational requirements that cannot be addressed through digital authentication alone.
For technology providers and security integrators, the development creates opportunities to extend established access control platforms into new industrial applications. At the same time, it places additional emphasis on interoperability, secure interfaces and the management of non-human identities.

A New Dimension of Industrial Security

The Whitegate project demonstrates how autonomous inspection can be expanded without removing established physical security controls. Instead of treating restricted doors as obstacles to be bypassed, the approach incorporates robotic systems into the same authorisation processes used to manage access throughout the facility.
For industrial operators, this could make autonomous inspection more practical across complex sites while maintaining central control over access permissions. For the security industry, it represents a potential extension of physical identity and access management into an environment increasingly populated by autonomous machines.
The wider significance lies not in the automatic opening of doors, but in the relationship between machine identity, operational autonomy and physical security.
As robotics becomes more closely integrated with industrial infrastructure, access management will need to answer a question that until recently concerned almost exclusively human users: not only who is authorised to enter a protected area, but also which autonomous systems may enter, when they may do so and how their activities can be reliably controlled.