Sierrabase wins Korea's Scale-up TIPS grant to fully automate drone inspection of bridges, slopes and tunnels

Seoul infrastructure-inspection startup Sierrabase, led by CEO Kim Song-hyun, has been selected for the SMEs ministry's Scale-up TIPS R&D programme with a project to automate facility maintenance using its SIRIUS physical-AI drone system, Robot Newspaper (irobotnews) reported on Oct 2; the grant amount was not disclosed and MEKAWIRE found no release on the company's newsroom, so the details are as reported.

Under the programme, investor IBK Venture Investment provides growth support and Seoul Facilities Corporation supplies a test bed and acts as a buyer. According to the report, Sierrabase will develop an inspection system that maps structures in real time with on-board lidar and SLAM so drones can fly under bridges without GPS, generative-AI damage analysis that extends beyond cracks to slopes and tunnels, and a 3D management tool, with the aim of automating the chain from mapping to report.

The company said SIRIUS is registered as Korea's new construction technology No. 990 and is used by Korea Expressway Corporation and K-water, that about 170,000 structures fall under Korea's facility safety act, and that it is setting up a joint venture in Japan after listing with the land ministry's catalogue there.

MEKAWIRE added Sierrabase to its company database with this story; its closest covered peer is ANYbotics, whose Shift inspection-operations platform MEKAWIRE reported on Oct 1.