Adnoc Turns to Robots for War-Damaged Infrastructure

Gecko Robotics is deploying wall-climbing robots across Adnoc energy facilities to find structural weaknesses and assess damage after the Iran war exposed vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure across the Gulf. The machines inspect assets without taking them offline. That’s the practical pitch as energy companies prepare to keep facilities running and the company expands its military business.

The apparatus gets an upgrade

Gecko unveiled its Raptor robot exclusively to The National at Adipec in Abu Dhabi. The company is considering manufacturing the machines in the UAE, where it is expanding its partnership with Adnoc, including through a new agreement with Adnoc Onshore.

Raptor uses sensors and sound waves to identify structural faults. Gecko says it operates three to five times faster than its predecessor, collects millions of data points during inspections and is up to 50 times faster than competitors’ robots. The inspection data feeds into a digital layer that maps the assets, giving companies a way to assess facilities without shutting them down.

Jake Loosararian, the company’s chief executive and co-founder, described the post-attack use plainly: “When you think about that as it relates to post-attacks, that's where you should be able to think about Gecko's ability to understand what sort of damage has occurred, so that it increases how quickly you can get assets back up and running.”

He said the system “allows for a 50 x reduction in the cost of data collection, while also increasing the fidelity by roughly the same order of magnitude.” The company says the technology can show operators “what to fix, how to fix it,” and help extend equipment lifespans and maintenance cycles.

Resilience, with a military contract attached

Since the beginning of the Iran war, energy infrastructure has been attacked across the region, and Gecko says demand for its services has been high. Large contracts have also been awarded for military applications. Last week, the company signed a $300 million agreement with the US Navy for robotics applications.

Loosararian said military use of robotics and AI to improve the readiness and performance of critical assets also applies to energy infrastructure during regional conflicts. The same tools sold as a way to keep energy facilities operating therefore sit within a business that is expanding in military applications, too.

Gecko presents the work as a safety measure. “Robotics are essential to ensure that resilience and readiness is possible in a world where we don't have a lot of these skilled workforces,” Loosararian said. “And by the way, we should be building technology that makes people safe. And that's exactly what these robots are doing.” The company says it is focused on safety and building “better tools” for people.

The pitch also comes with a warning about who gets left behind. “If you don't have a path that leads you towards a more AI-native, robotic-native way of running infrastructure, you are operating in the ancient past, and that ancient path will lead you to demise,” Loosararian said. “The energy companies that are looking more and more like tech companies are going to be the ones that win the day.”

Building closer to the assets

Gecko already deploys tens of robots a day in the region. It is considering UAE manufacturing as demand grows, which would let the company develop and test equipment closer to the facilities where it will be used. Loosararian said that could avoid “the death of a lab,” when equipment developed in controlled environments fails in real-world conditions.

The UAE is seeking to expand local robotics manufacturing as part of its industrial development strategy. Ibtisam Al Saadi, acting assistant undersecretary for the industrial development sector at the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, said robotics is “enhancing and expediting production” and improving “ease of doing business for the end users.” She also said interest among young Emiratis in robotics programming and manufacturing was growing, alongside locally manufactured drones and 3D printing.

Gecko’s expansion includes an agreement with Adnoc Onshore, expected to be announced on Wednesday, to deploy robotics and AI models for critical infrastructure. The article was published November 04, 2026. The source lays out the corporate and government expansion, the military contract and the promised operational gains. It offers no account of how workers or communities around these facilities will shape the decisions being made in their name.