MINNEAPOLIS — New robotics technology is seeping into every part of manufacturing — even the cleaning of the factory floors and assembly lines.
Nilfisk, a cleaning equipment-maker based in suburban Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh company Carnegie Robotics LLC recently introduced one of the nation’s most advanced robotic floor scrubbers — one that allows a worker to program it and jump off for other tasks if necessary.
Nilfisk officials said there were even some jaws agape during demonstrations of the Advance Liberty A50 Autonomous Scrubber in October at the ISSA/Interclean North America Trade Show in Chicago.
The new machines will be available for purchase by spring and will be made near the Twin Cities.
When driverless, the industrial-size Roombalike machine employs sensors, cameras, software, and lasers to navigate within 2 inches of walls and around furniture and other obstacles while simultaneously scrubbing and drying floors.
“It learns a space once the room’s map is programmed into the machine, [so] it can go back and keep cleaning that space over and over again,” said Carnegie Robotics spokesperson Jackie Erickson. “It knows its space, can perceive it, and go.”
Proprietary sensors and lasers not only allow the machines to clean very close to walls. They also can avoid touching a tennis ball and accurately track their cleaning paths so the scrubbers won’t repeat previously cleaned zones, officials said.
“We are thrilled to launch the most advanced and easiest to use scrubber/dryer in the commercial floor care industry,” Nilfisk CEO Jonas Persson said. “Nilfisk has an unprecedented legacy of bringing ingenuity and innovation to market by way of products that improve and advance the industry. The Advance Liberty A50 is our most important product innovation yet, and it will set the standard and lead the way for intelligent equipment going forward” in the industry.
When using a driver, the A50 machine is designed to allow multitasking. The custodian, who rides standing on the back of the scrubber, can drive “manually” or set the machine to operate “autonomously.”
The product brings the decades-old technology of chic driverless vacuum cleaners and robotic mail carts to the floor-scrubbing industry at a time when many commercial customers are increasingly interested in robotics and lowering labor costs.
First Published January 3, 2017, 5:00 a.m.