Oriental Shiraishi and AKARI develop autonomous walking for quadruped robots on suspended scaffolding

Nikkei Cross Tech reported on October 18, 2026, that Oriental Shiraishi and AKARI developed autonomous walking for quadruped robots on suspended scaffolding. The report said the work focuses on suspended scaffolding used at sites such as bridges.

Testing autonomous walking in the highly constrained environment of suspended scaffolding used in bridge construction can help assess whether robots can move reliably—a challenge that is often one of the biggest obstacles to their adoption at construction sites. Since the work was reported as an effort by Oriental Shiraishi and AKARI, the focus will be on how far they have advanced the feasibility of implementation under actual site conditions.

What is new in this report is that it brings a quadruped robot into the highly specific space of suspended scaffolding used at construction sites and focuses on whether autonomous walking is viable there. Quadruped robots themselves are not unusual based on publicly available information, but there is value in working out operating conditions in environments where steps, openings and narrow passages overlap, such as scaffolding used in bridge construction. In other words, the effort appears to have reached the stage of verifying whether the robot can move reliably under actual construction-site conditions, rather than focusing on the robot's performance alone. A related article by this newspaper, AKARI and Oriental Shiraishi demonstrate autonomous walking by a quadruped robot on suspended scaffolding, also focused on suspended scaffolding. By contrast, Nikkei Cross Tech publishes a feature on 100 startups in the construction sector on August 27, 2026, offered a broader view of startups tackling the construction sector. In addition, the reports Aster teams up with AKARI as drone demand surges tenfold, Nikkei reports on September 8, 2026, and AKARI invests in Aster, which plans to increase production at a new factory on September 15, 2026, together suggest that AKARI is involved not only in individual demonstrations but also in partnerships with other companies and efforts to build supply capacity. It is natural to view the latest robot development as part of that broader trajectory, with a focus on refining the conditions for deployment at work sites. Structurally, construction robots are difficult to deploy widely based on the sophistication of the machines alone; overcoming constraints involving scaffolding, safety harnesses, routes and visibility remains a barrier to implementation. Autonomous walking on suspended scaffolding involves conditions closer to those of actual construction sites than a demonstration on flat ground, and appears to explore the potential for labor savings or replacing inspection work at construction sites. However, publicly available information does not establish the degree of autonomy, which tasks the robot would replace or whether the companies envision a production model. Points to watch include (1) the control method for autonomous walking on suspended scaffolding, (2) the intended scope of use in actual operations rather than demonstrations, and (3) the robot's supply model and arrangements for production and maintenance.

In Japan, scaffolding used at bridge and elevated work sites poses demanding conditions, and robot adoption depends not only on machine performance but also on how well robots fit the work site. This report highlights the need to adapt robots to constraints specific to Japanese construction sites, including movement on scaffolding.