• KAUST and Aramco have signed an intellectual property (IP) license agreement for the Hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Crawler Technology (HUCT).  

• This novel innovation merges aerial and terrestrial robotic capabilities to support inspection, monitoring, and other industrial applications

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and Aramco have signed an IP license agreement for commercialization of the Hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Crawler Technology (HUCT). This novel innovation merges aerial and terrestrial robotic capabilities to support inspection, monitoring, and other advanced industrial applications.  

This agreement allows Aramco to further develop and implement HUCT across its operations and beyond, reinforcing its emphasis on technology leadership and operational efficiency. It marks a significant milestone in KAUST’s mission to speed up the translation of research into real-world applications, aligned with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.  

The HUCT was co-invented by a team of researchers from KAUST and Aramco, with contributions coming from former KAUST alumni who now work for Aramco. The agreement not only highlights the parties’ innovation capacity but also emphasizes the growing influence of KAUST’s alumni network in the Kingdom's industrial R&D landscape.  

Ali A. Al Meshari, Aramco Senior Vice President of Technology Oversight & Coordination, said: "We are proud to collaborate with KAUST, a partnership that embodies our strategic commitment to harnessing academic expertise and scientific excellence to drive technological innovation. The HUCT is a groundbreaking example of this collaboration, enabling the detection and maintenance of asset integrity and reliability in our core business. By leveraging robotics and sensing solutions, we can now inspect elevated facilities in a safer, more efficient manner, reducing risks and improving our overall energy efficiency and HSE standards. This partnership not only fosters the growth of such inventions for specific industrial applications but also underscores our shared vision for a safer, more sustainable future.”  

Dr. Ian Campbell, Senior Vice President of the KAUST National Transformation Institute (NTI), said: “This agreement reflects KAUST’s commitment to delivering solutions that have meaningful national impact and demonstrates the success of our model in driving innovation to market. It is also a great example of the talent pipeline we are cultivating — KAUST alumni are shaping the future of innovation from within major global organizations like Aramco.”  

Through its work at the National Transformation Institute and its emphasis on sectors such as robotics, AI, and sustainability, KAUST is bridging scientific discovery with commercialization to directly enhance the Kingdom’s Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) ecosystem. Robotics represents a significant research focus for Saudi Arabia’s national priority of “Economies of the Future.” 

This agreement is part of both parties’ technology and innovation strategy to strengthen academic and in-Kingdom partnerships, scale up high-impact technologies, and support Saudi Arabia’s transformation into a knowledge-based economy.