Sonair
About
About Sonair
Sonair develops ADAR One, a three-dimensional acoustic detection and ranging sensor for detecting people and obstacles around autonomous robots or fixed machinery. It uses ultrasound to cover space above and below a conventional two-dimensional safety plane and feeds safety decisions in the host robot or machine.
ADAR One provides a four-metre range, a 180 by 180 degree field of view, 112 millisecond response time and 128 configurable safety zones. The sensor is rated SIL 2 and PL d. Intended settings include mobile robots in warehouses, factories, retail and hospitals, plus protected work areas around palletisers, CNC machine-tending cells and packaging lines.
Products
- ADAR One
ADAR
Observed use
- ADAR One with UR20
Physical Demo - Mounted - beRobox demonstrated a PALTZ palletizer with a UR20 arm and arm-mounted Sonair ADAR One safety sensor at PACK EXPO.
Source
Supply
Supply chain relationships
- beRobox
Outbound - robotics sensors - Sonair supplies ADAR One sensing for beRobox’s PALTZ 3D Dynamic Safety module
Source - Fuji Corporation
Outbound - Sensing - Fuji procured Sonair ADAR sensors for an upcoming autonomous-mobile-robot line
Source - Cleanfix
Outbound - Sensing - Cleanfix's next-generation RA660 Navi XL integrates Sonair ADAR 3D ultrasonic sensing
Source
Funding
- 2025-09-17 - $6M - Sonair raises $6M to scale ADAR robot safety sensor rollout
Sonair raised $6 million to accelerate global rollout of its ADAR 3D ultrasonic robot safety sensor. - source: sonair.com
- 2024-10-07 - Funding round - $1.6M - Sonair raises $1.6M, bringing total funding to $6.8M
Sonair raised $1.6 million in a round led by Skyfall Ventures, taking cumulative funding to $6.8 million. - source: sonair.com
Investors
- RunwayFBU - Participant - Unknown - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2024-10-07 - latest 2025-09-17
- Investinor - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-09-17
- ProVenture - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-09-17
- Scale Capital - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-09-17
- SINTEF - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-09-17
- Skyfall Ventures - Lead - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2024-10-07
- T|Y|R.vc - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-09-17
Team
- Knut Sandven - Chief Executive Officer - Led Sonair's founding and commercialisation of ADAR sensing.
- Dag Wang - Chief Technology Officer - Leads Sonair's ultrasonic sensing technology programme.
- Tor Odland - Chief Marketing Officer - Leads Sonair's marketing function.
- Britta Fismen - Vice President, Engineering - Leads engineering delivery for Sonair's sensing products.
- Gussi Bull - Chief Financial Officer - Leads Sonair's finance function.
- Christian Clausen - Chief Commercial Officer - Leads Sonair's commercial function.
Timeline
Events
- 2026-10-19 - Product Launch - beRobox launches arm-mounted 3D Dynamic Safety for PALTZ
The protective area moves with robot position, combining arm-state information with three-dimensional presence detection. The companies say the system can allow a pallet change at one station while palletizing continues at the other, subject to the safety configuration. The module is being demonstrated with a Universal Robots UR20 at PACK EXPO International in Chicago.
Source - 2026-06-30 - Regulatory - Sonair certifies ADAR One for SIL 2 and PL d robot-safety applications
exida issued an EC type-examination certificate covering IEC 61496, IEC 61508 and ISO 13849 requirements. The certification supports SIL 2 and PL d applications with dangerous-failure probability below 1.5 × 10^-7 per hour. Sonair said series-production units were shipping for use on deployed industrial robots.
Source - 2026-03-24 - Capability - Sonair ADAR integrated into Cleanfix RA660 Navi XL
A single ADAR unit replaces functions previously spread across up to 14 linear sensors, with a 180° by 180° field of view. The sensor detects low obstacles such as bags, tools and pallet edges without recording images, supporting privacy-sensitive sites. Ultrasonic sensing works in darkness and reduces lens-cleaning requirements and dust-related false detections.
Source - 2025-09-17 - Funding - Sonair raises $6M to scale ADAR robot safety sensor rollout
Scale Capital and Investinor joined existing investors RunwayFBU, SINTEF, and ProVenture in the round. ADAR was shipping to manufacturers in Asia, Europe, and North America after testing with more than 30 companies.
Source - 2025-05-07 - Product Launch - Sonair debuts ADAR 3D ultrasonic sensor for autonomous robots
ADAR provides a five-metre, 180° by 180° three-dimensional detection field. More than 20 companies validated the sensor through Sonair's Early Access programme. Fuji Corporation procured ADAR for an upcoming autonomous-mobile-robot line; Sonair scheduled initial shipments for July 2025.
Source - 2024-10-07 - Funding - Sonair raises $1.6M, bringing total funding to $6.8M
Skyfall Ventures led the round and RunwayFBU participated. The new financing amount was $1.6 million; $6.8 million was the company's cumulative funding total. Sonair said the capital would support commercialisation of its ADAR ultrasonic sensing technology.
Source
Context
Context tags
- Factory automation systems - Capability - Sonair targets safety sensing for autonomous machines in industrial environments.