Heavy industry relies on people to inspect hazardous, dirty facilities. It’s expensive, and putting humans in these zones carries obvious safety risks. Swiss robot maker ANYbotics and software company SAP are trying to change that. ANYbotics’ four-legged autonomous robots will be connected straight into SAP’s backend enterprise resource planning software. Instead of treating a robot as a standalone asset, this turns it into a mobile data-gathering node within an industrial IoT network. This initiative shows that hardware innovation can now effectively connect with established business workflows. Underscoring that broader trend, SAP is sponsoring this year’s AI & Big Data Expo North America at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, CA, an event that is fittingly co-located with the IoT Tech Expo and Intelligent Automation & Physical AI Summit . When equipment breaks at a chemical plant or offshore rig, it costs a fortune.…