Robots had a serious job to do at ELROB 2026, and Roboverse Reply came away with one of the event’s top honors.
The Reply Group robotics and automation company won first place in the Reconnaissance category at the European Land Robot Trial 2026 in Thun, Switzerland. Roboverse Reply also picked up a special prize for Best Team Effort after competing alongside international teams from June 15 to 19.
This was not a polished trade show demo with perfect lighting and a carefully cleared path. ELROB is built around the kind of messy, risky jobs where robots can actually matter. Teams are tested on missions such as reconnaissance, explosive ordnance detection and rescue operations. That means finding hazards like mines, ammunition, booby traps and drones in conditions meant to resemble real-world security and emergency scenarios.
Roboverse Reply teamed with ELP, a specialist in technical equipment for defusing services, for the competition. The company said its system proved it could operate reliably under real-world conditions, which is exactly the point of a trial like this. A robot that works only when everything is neat and predictable is not much help when the job involves danger, rubble or hidden explosives.
The company’s latest system builds on the Roboverse Reply platform, which was also used in its ELROB 2024 effort. The difference this time is that the robot setup has moved beyond mostly remote-controlled operation. Roboverse Reply says the newer version uses embodied AI features to help the human operator during a mission.
That shift matters. In high-risk environments, the goal is not simply to drive a robot from a safe distance like an expensive remote-control car. The bigger prize is giving the system enough awareness to help with the mission, spot hazards and reduce the burden on the person controlling it.
The system is designed for semi-autonomous reconnaissance in unknown environments. It can automatically detect and report mines, ammunition, booby traps and drones. When a human needs to step in, operators can use a VR-based telemanipulation system for more intuitive remote control.
That combination is likely where many critical-mission robots are headed. Full autonomy sounds impressive, but dangerous environments are full of surprises. Human judgment still matters. The useful robot is the one that can take on part of the burden, collect information, flag threats and keep people farther away from the worst parts of the job.
Filippo Rizzante, CTO of Reply, said ELROB 2026 showed how the company’s robotics systems are moving from pure teleoperation toward intelligent assistance for critical missions. He pointed to greater autonomy, improved environmental awareness and stronger communication architectures as key parts of systems that have to work when conditions are anything but friendly.
For emergency responders, bomb disposal teams and security operations, that could be the difference between sending a person into danger and sending a machine first.
Roboverse Reply’s win does not mean robots are suddenly ready to handle every hazardous mission by themselves. It does show that the field is moving past the basic question of whether robots can be useful in these situations. Now the question is how much they can do before a human has to take over.
At ELROB 2026, Roboverse Reply made a strong case that the answer is becoming: more than before.
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