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November 10, 2025

This startup is using bat-like sensors to make robots safe

The Norwegian startup Sonair already has 40 paying robotics companies testing the technology


Mimi Billing

5 min read

Inside an atypical new build office in Oslo, kitted out with wooden panels on the outside, engineer and serial entrepreneur Knut Sandven holds up a small rectangular piece of equipment with 16 tiny ultrasonic sensors on it. Those sensors, he tells me, are similar to the ones that allow cars to “see” their surroundings, but on a miniature scale.

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picture of 1X's NEO
1X Technologies' humanoid Neo
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picture of Sonair's test kit
Sonair's technology on warehouse robots.
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Mimi Billing

Mimi Billing is Sifted's Europe editor, based in Stockholm. She covers the Nordics and can be found on X and LinkedIn

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