When you think of ceiling cranes, you'd generally think of large steel I-beam girder systems that weigh a million pounds and could probably hoist the concrete foundation right out from under the building. CeiliX, however, has invented an elegant omnidirectional system called the InifnityCrane Skyrunner.
Rather than a heavy industrial rail, it uses a completely customizable overhead lattice frame that the crane "base" attaches to. It has a series of individual grippers – each equipped with laterally-facing rollers – in a "tank track-like" configuration. As it moves along, the "tank tracks" rotate, opening and closing the grippers, and grabs ahold of each of the specialized overhead rails along the lattice as it goes in any direction, even diagonally. A winch with a cable is also fitted in the InfinityCrane to do all the heavy lifting.
The overhead rail network can be customized to any room shape or size. It doesn't even matter if there are support columns or other obstructions, the rails can be built around them for complete coverage of an area – or just as much as you need.
It's pretty genius. And slightly reminiscent of a Barnacle from the game Half-Life, just more mobile.
The Skyrunner is capable of carrying a ~550-lb (250-kg) payload seemingly effortlessly with just a single person pushing and pulling the payload around. Multiple Skyrunners can work in unison to carry even more weight. They can also work in tandem for manipulating payloads, like flipping over an object or handing it off mid-air like a trapeze act – and all with just a single operator, no superhuman strength required.
Machine and fabrication shops, aerospace, foundries, warehouses ... there are a million ways these CeiliX Skyrunners could come in handy for repetitive lifting and moving of heavy objects. And it frees up floorspace.
Ceilix made its North American debut in May of 2025 at the Automate conference in Detroit, Michigan, where the company showed off its Mobile Ceiling-Cobot – a Kassow robotic arm built by Rexroth with 7-axis freedom to tackle just about any job below it. The helpful cobot (collaborative robot) can carry a payload up to 40 lb (18 kg) and has a reach between 33.5 to 70.9 in (85 to 180 cm).
"We're opening up a new dimension in automation," said Mathias Entenmann, CEO of CeiliX. "By shifting processes from the floor to the ceiling, we're not just saving space, we're creating intelligent overhead systems that adapt, evolve and scale with our customers' needs."
Source: CeiliX
