marchapril2021 - 17

MAINTENANCE
anybody from a user
perspective, the
robot works on its
own from there and
can clean up to six
hours autonomously
on a single charge with
one full tank of water, "
said Sheikh. " It uses lasers
and cameras for navigation,
but that's just a sensory input. The
secret sauce is in the AI that we have
programmed in our robots. "
Brian Cobb, chief innovation officer
for CVG, said Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
sensors are deployed around the terminal,
allowing them to map heavy activity.
Initially, CVG utilized Neo mainly
at night, but limiting cleaning operations
to nighttime operations meant the airport
missed a fair amount of the operational
day to address cleaning. CVG's growth
further compacted that time, Cobb said,
making it even more challenging for
traditional housekeeping staff to address
maintenance.
CVG also wanted to get Neo out in
front of the public.
" Optically, we wanted the customer
to see we care about cleanliness, " Cobb
said. " Jan. 1, 2020, we asked the f loor
care team convert it to daytime operation.
It's a one-man operation via robot that
can be deployed to specific sections, set
it, forget it and let it go and it will do its
thing. The customer sees what's going
on and appreciates the fact that they see
what's going on. "
The urge to get cleaning out efforts
out in front of public to help alleviate
COVID-19 fears is helping to drive
airports interest in robotic technology,
said Sheikh. On top of that, the reliability
of autonomous technology, its ability to
keep cleaning without rest and with that
the ability for airports to verify exactly
what and where has been serviced is
compounding the demand.
" There's definitely been measurable
uptake in robotic cleaning interest. You
need to increase your cleaning frequency.
You need to provide a quantifiable and
qualifiable clean. So just saying, 'I think
I got done' is not okay anymore. You
want to know what got cleaned and
with what quality and efficacy did it get
cleaned. That lends itself to the transition
from manual to autonomous cleaning.

The LightStrike emitting a flash of UV light.
SAN ANTONIO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

And then when you
in collaboration with another venue
couple that with the
like a basketball arena or baseball park
fact that airports are
or anywhere that has f looring like an
quite frankly in a bit
airport, " he said. " We're all public
of a crunch right now, it
venues at the end of the day, they just
definitely further lends itself
don't see the volume that we do so can
towards automation. When you
we collaborate and with that approach
go autonomous, you're going to be more
buy more units and combine monetary
efficient in terms of your dollars spent, " budgets. "
He said it's more difficult to run
Sheikh explained.
Neo can track what areas of the floor
indoor robotics than outdoors so
got cleaned down to 5 centimeters of
determine if a unit can actually maneuver
resolution as well as efficacy judged by
within your terminal as promised and that
brush pressure, speed and water f low. it can collect data to give you multiple
streams of information about operations.
Airports can adjust the efficacy for
" Think about the equipment on board
specific areas where they want more
attention paid to cleaning.
and how far you can take it, " Cobb said.
Cobb said they want to purchase " Neo has several cameras on board so
we'd like to eventually stream these to
three more units. They're exploring a
more collaborative approach to purchase
our closed-circuit security system so it
units with other venues that only see
operates as another security sentry.
events on a periodic basis.
" It's not about what the unit is today,
" Can we leverage our resources
but what it can be tomorrow. " 

Take your
terminal cleaning
to new heights.
Neo cleans in
5 of the world's
top 10 airports!*

Neo reallocates
housekeeping efforts
to higher-value tasks!

The future of fully
autonomous floor cleaning.
*As recognized by SkyTrax 2020 World Airport Awards

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