 |
| Hybrid human.. about the only robot that would do the job. |
This Incredible Robot Can Wash Your Windows: Yeah, yeah yeah... we've been waiting for this to happen for a few years now. All of the supposed machines that are made to make the window cleaner redundant are yet to be perfected & in some cases provide a bigger hazard than the actual worker. Time will tell, here are a few examples..
 |
| These robotic window washers are not afraid of heights, high winds, or hard-to-reach places. |
Window Cleaning Robots Making Their Way To Skyscraper Happy United Arab Emirates: These robotic window washers are not afraid of heights, high winds, or hard-to-reach places. Gekko Façade and its sister, solar panel cleaning robot Gekko Solar, imitate their lizard namesake by clinging to high places that would unnerve the most intrepid of humans. Which is why the humans could very soon be out of the job.
Gekko Façade is better than window washers, hanging precariously outside office windows on a swinging platform. Not only for the sheer glass it can cover – 576 square meters per hour – but its suction cup feet allow it to stay safely attached while it cleans with a rotating brush, even on curved surfaces. It’s sufficiently nimble to get to all those hard to reach places like a Spiderman Roomba. Of course, it doesn’t always perform death-defying cleaning stunts. Gekko Façade can clean flat surfaces as well.
Gekko Solar is the insect-like robot that crawls across solar panels, cleaning along the way at a rate of 3,000 square meters per hour. And Gekko Solar does more than just clean solar panels. A contactless voltage measuring device allows it to check the efficiency of each panel while it’s operating. Faulty panels can be easily identified and replaced. The Gekkos use very little water while cleaning which is more environmentally friendly and economical than conventional washers and saves users money.
 |
| Gekko Solar cleans solar panels so you don’t have to. And while they’re at it, they check voltage output efficiency. |
In January Serbot showcased its robots at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. UAE’s capital city, Dubai, is a skyscraper wonderland. With the potential to scamper past much slower and more timid humans up the miles and miles of glass-covered skyscrapers, UAE and the Gekko Façades are a perfect combination. But while Gekko Solar is already being sold around the world, the Façade robot still has to finish its last bit of testing before it becomes commercially available.
The Gekkos aren’t fully automated just yet – sensors prevent them from falling off roofs, but they’re still controlled by an operator. But Serbot AG, the Swiss company that makes them eventually plans to develop software that would make them fully automated. Just set them on their way and come back later to admire the shine.
 |
| Robots are taking over, potentially. |
Window Washers’ Jobs: Outsourced To Robots? Window washers may be out of a job.
Window washers in New York have long fascinated city dwellers below with their fearless attitude toward heights. The future of the window washing might be heading to those beings incapable of fearing heights (robots).
The Inquisitr reports that some human window washers assigned to
Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital wore super hero costumes to cheer up the patients.
Window cleaning robots aren’t that new, but most of them, like the Windoro, rely on magnets to stay in place. According to Gizmag, this requires the robot to be built in two parts and sets a limit on how thick the window glass can be before you see your automated window washer sail to an early demise below. Ecovacs‘ Winbot 7 uses a pair of concentric suction rings to stick to the glass, so is claimed to work on any thickness of window, so long as it’s flat enough. Even suction has its limits.
The Winbot 7 is apparently coming to the market soon, a little machine billed by Ecovacs Robotics as the first full-service window-washing robot.
The Winbot 7 resembles a Roomba vacuum cleaner, attaches itself to the pane, and proceeds to clean the surface of the window. And when it’s done, it plays a tune. Not only fearless, but whimsical.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nick Savadian, executive general manager on the US side, says the robot is marketed toward those super busy people looking for a way out of mundane chores:
“One thing we’re short of in life is time.”
We’re probably nowhere near the technology needed for full-on robot suits such as the ones in the upcoming live-action film Robotech, but as The Inquisitr reports, we can still watch movies about them.
Not everybody is happy about this advancement in technology. Scaffold-riding professionals and the New Yorkers who admire them are among those who would rather it didn’t happen. It’s hard to look up to a robot, even if it is several stories above you.
Would you like to see robot window washers?
Window cleaners draw crowds at IIT: Hundreds of students, proud parents and impressed teenagers gathered at IIT Delhi on Saturday to take a look at the projects compiled by various IIT students. The projects included everything from high-tech software and machinery to simple projects that can be used around the house.
Window cleaners: Cleaning the window panes from both inside and outside is a task that each one of us has tried and failed. The students at IIT Delhi have created a device to clean the outside as well as the inside. Magnets are attached to two separate panels and these are then covered by scrub pads. When a person starts cleaning the pane from inside the second panel is clamped on to the other side. The magnets on both panels keep the one outside from falling. It also mimics the movement of the panel in our hands.
 |
| A team of engineering students at Rice University have designed a robot that cleans windows. The robot’s tension system can be adjusted for different widths so that sensors stop the brush at the end of the glass, rotate the mechanism, and move it back across. |
Hire this robot: It does windows - A new robot is designed to automate
the process of cleaning recessed windows in buildings that present
problems for more traditional washers—both human and machine. A team of Rice University seniors—that includes Julia Bleck, Michael Liu, Erin O’Malley, and Andria Remirez based at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen—in collaboration with Nourelhouda Derbeli and Ali Abdmouleh, students from Tunisia, built the WashBOT as part of a multiyear robotics project.
 |
| The system soaps the window with a sponge-like mop on a horizontal track and follows with a squeegee to finish the job. |
Washing a window seems simple for a person, but it’s complicated for a robot. First, one has to get the machine in position. Then there are variables to account for: the size of the window, depth of the recess, application of the cleaning agent … and the squeegee. “That’s the most difficult part,” Remirez says. The students were charged with biting off a piece of the engineering challenge that could be handled within a year, says team advisor Fathi Ghorbel, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of bioengineering.
“This is a problem with a large scope that usually requires a company, several years, and a lot of funding to solve,” he says. “So the challenge to the students was to decide on the scope and deliver, because their grade depends on it.” So the team got to the heart of the matter: the cleaning. “We had to narrow it down to something we could physically create,” Bleck says. “We decided to focus on recessed windows because there’s nothing in the market that cleans them right now. And then we narrowed it to washing one portion of one window. Moving within a window is in itself a project; moving from window to window is another project.”
The system soaps the window with a sponge-like mop on a horizontal track and follows with a squeegee to finish the job. “We have designs to move the robot down the window to do the next horizontal pass,” Bleck says, but that job may be left to the next team. “We’ve had to do a lot of integration between the attachment system and the cleaning system,” O’Malley says. “There are a lot of things to do, but they all depend on other things.” The robot’s tension system can be adjusted for window widths. Sensors stop the brush at the end of the glass, rotate the mechanism, and move it back across. “So there’s no need to reprogram the robot to have it know the size of the window,” O’Malley says.
The team spent the fall testing cleaning materials, watching and talking to window washers, and visiting car washes to study how glass gets clean. “A lot of the current solutions use big, round rotating brushes, which work really well for flat-front buildings but not as well for buildings that have things sticking out between the windows,” O’Malley says. “So we tried to make the robot as close to what a window washer would do: spray water, wipe it down with a sponge, and use a squeegee,” Remirez says. “Getting the applied pressure right has been the hardest part. We did a lot of research for that.”
Robot to wash high-rise windows: As long as buildings have windows, engineers will fret about how best to keep them clean. Rice University engineering students are no exception and are working on better ways to keep skyscrapers shiny. The WashBOT team of seniors based at Rice’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen is part of a multiyear robotics project to automate the process of cleaning recessed windows in buildings that present problems for more traditional washers, both human and machine. The students—Julia Bleck, Michael Liu, Erin O’Malley, and Andria Remirez—were joined by colleagues from Tunisia, Nourelhouda Derbeli and Ali Abdmouleh, both students at the National School of Engineers of Sfax. They spent the fall semester communicating their ideas via Skype, but Derbeli and Abdmouleh are studying side by side with their teammates at Rice this spring.
Washing a window seems simple for a person, but it’s complicated for a robot. First, one has to get the machine in position. Then there are variables to account for: the size of the window, depth of the recess, application of the cleaning agent … and the squeegee. “That’s the most difficult part,” Remirez says. The students were charged with biting off a piece of the engineering challenge that could be handled by a student team within a year, says Fathi Ghorbel, a Rice professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of bioengineering and the team’s adviser. “This is a problem with a large scope that usually requires a company, several years and a lot of funding to solve,” he says. “So the challenge to the students was to decide on the scope and deliver, because their grade depends on it.”
So the team got to the heart of the matter: the cleaning. “We had to narrow it down to something we could physically create,” Bleck says. “We decided to focus on recessed windows because there’s nothing in the market that cleans them right now. And then we narrowed it to washing one portion of one window. Moving within a window is in itself a project; moving from window to window is another project.” The Rice system soaps the window with a sponge-like mop on a horizontal track and follows with a squeegee to finish the job. “We have designs to move the robot down the window to do the next horizontal pass,” Bleck says, but that job may be left to the next team. “We’ve had to do a lot of integration between the attachment system and the cleaning system,” O’Malley says. “There are a lot of things to do, but they all depend on other things.”
The robot’s tension system can be adjusted for window widths. Sensors stop the brush at the end of the glass, rotate the mechanism and move it back across. “So there’s no need to reprogram the robot to have it know the size of the window,” O’Malley says. The team spent the fall testing cleaning materials, watching and talking to window washers and visiting car washes to study how glass gets clean. “A lot of the current solutions use big, round rotating brushes, which work really well for flat-front buildings but not as well for buildings that have things sticking out between the windows,” O’Malley says. “So we tried to make the robot as close to what a window washer would do: spray water, wipe it down with a sponge and use a squeegee,” Remirez says. “Getting the applied pressure right has been the hardest part. We did a lot of research for that.”
The project serves the senior engineering design requirement for the Tunisian students, who rarely have the chance to work in teams. “They typically work on their own with an industrial partner or with a researcher within the university,” Ghorbel says. Another group in Tunisia is working on the robot’s locomotion system, he says. The international aspect of the project is part of a larger effort by Ghorbel to establish long-term collaborations with engineering schools overseas. He began his iDesign initiative during a yearlong leave to work with oil and gas giant Schlumberger in Paris on mechatronics and robotics issues and to establish connections between the company and academia.
“The idea of capstone design is unique to the U.S. curriculum, asking students to apply the knowledge they have acquired to go from an idea to a prototype,” Ghorbel says. “At Rice, we’re doing that extremely well, not only from a technical point of view but also as a way to encourage entrepreneurship, with the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership and the Rice Alliance. “When I talked about these things in Paris, Schlumberger said, ‘Let’s do an international version,’” he says. Thus far, the project has worked with universities in the United Arab Emirates and Tokyo as well as France and Tunisia, the latter with support from the U.S. State Department, he says.
SAM robot climbs highrises to check for damage: If you were responsible for the upkeep of a 20-story-tall building, you wouldn’t just stand on the ground and look up at it to see if it needed any structural repairs. Instead you’d hire a building inspection service, which would lower inspectors down the side of the building on a swing stage or bosun chair, like window cleaners use. The folks at
FTD Highrise Inspection, however, are now using something that they claim is a superior alternative – a highrise-inspecting robot they created, called SAM.
The robot doesn’t actually cling to the side of the building like Spider-Man, but instead uses a roof-mounted custom rigging system. “This allows us to send wires down the side of the building,” FTD’s Filip Sobotka explained to us. “We then attach SAM to the wires and he climbs up them, he reaches the top of the rigging system and begins his inspection. He takes an image which is then relayed to the operator on the ground. He continues to do this until he reaches the bottom of the run. After this is completed we re-position the rigging and repeat this process.”
Using their tablet-style control unit, the operator assesses each wirelessly-transmitted photo, looking for things like cracks, faulty window moldings, or other problems. When they do notice something, they don’t have to look at the building and try to memorize the spot by sight – because each image is data-tagged, its location on the building is recorded on a digital 3D grid map of the building. So, why is SAM reportedly better than dangling human inspectors?
Speed is the main reason. The robot recently took less than two days to inspect a building with 21,000 square feet (1,951 sq m) of exterior surface area. According to FTD, this would have taken weeks using people on a swing stage or chair. Because SAM is so much quicker, inspection costs are apparently also considerably lower.
Additionally, the robot takes photos of every square inch of the building, and those photos are saved for future reference. As long as the operator looks at the images thoroughly, then – in theory – nothing should be missed. If there are concerns after the inspection is complete, the photos can still be accessed by the client online at any time. FTD is based out of Mississauga, Canada, and serves clients around the Southern Ontario area. SAM can be seen in use in the video
here.
 |
| The development of SOLARBRUSH was started in 1998 and since then the robots have evolved to the cleaning of photovoltaic modules in dry regions. |
Robot cleans solar panels: Ridha Azaiz, an aspiring German engineer, had a dream. He wanted to build a robot that restores the efficiency of solar power systems by cleaning the panels so they function properly. In 1997 Ridha Azaiz was thirteen, and it bothered him that if a solar power system wasn’t cleaned, the energy yield of the solar panels rapidly decreased. In 1998, tinkering with his invention led Ridha to the Youth Research Foundation and onto television with his cleaning robot.
Solarbrush made its way to Berlin in 2009, then onto California and now into the Middle East countries, such as Abu Dhabi. A dirty solar power system only produces two thirds of its power, so Ridha Azaiz has come up with a solution: Often, sand deposits are a major problem for solar panels.
Ridha Azaiz's robot brushes sand and dust from solar panels until all the particles fall into the gaps away from each panel and onto the ground. Other robots suck, wash and clean the panels with water and detergent. These devices are difficult to use and require pumps and pipes which are usually more expensive than a small car.
 |
| In 1998, tinkering with his invention led Ridha to the Youth Research Foundation and onto television with his cleaning robot. Solarbrush made its way to Berlin in 2009, then onto California and now into the booming Middle East countries, such as Abu Dhabi. |
However, Solarbrush produced in higher quantities would only cost around US$3,000 per robot. The robot is designed for dry cleaning and walks on solar modules with high inclination of at least 30 degrees. Suction cups, also known as vacuum bulbs, attach the robot to the surface. It detects the end of the modules and steps over the frame of the modules onto the next module. It does so for the maximum distance of 30 mm. The robot carries a rechargeable and replaceable battery.
The largest competitors are currently unskilled workers who use simple methods, such as window cleaning to clean solar power plants. This is a gargantuan task - equivalent to cleaning a set of panels the size of 200 football fields. If the panels are located in dry desert-like area, this is not a pleasant job. Currently, four Solarbrush robots at a time need to be supervised by a service team. The robot needs to be manually moved from one row of solar panels to the next.
The device uses standard components from the industry, keeping down maintenance costs. The robot cleans the solar modules in a structured pattern, unlike most robots for domestic use. The gentle brush and the light weight of 2.5 kg are designed to be sensitive to the surface. The battery lasts for two hours and Azaiz is working to increase this. The target velocity is 1 m² / minute. Major solar cell producers claim that there is no need to clean solar modules. However studies state that cleaning can raise efficiencies by 3% to 10 % in Europe and up to 35% in the Middle East. Azaiz remarked: "Solarbrush is now growing fast, I need exploratory investors and partners for distribution." Video
here.
 |
|
Robots could keep solar panels clean in arid regions, without using water: In order to keep solar panels operating as efficiently as possible, they need to stay clear of dust that may obscure the cells, which can be a problem for PV arrays that are installed at a low angle. Instead of sending out armies of cleaners to wipe the panels down, one company thinks it can be done with robots.
Mirai Machinery and Kagawa University, in Japan, have built a prototype of a self-propelled robot that can cling to the surface of solar panels and clean them, without using any water (which is another benefit, as many PV installations are being put up in arid regions).
According to their press release, the units are small enough for one adult to carry, and when they are placed on the panel, the robots will start at one corner and clean the entire panel automatically, using a special rotating brush.
The prototype units have been tested at PV installations in the Middle East, to some success, and the company will be pursuing further development of the technology. The robots are said to run for two hours on a single charge, but no mention is made of whether they would include their own solar panel for self-charging (which would seem like a logical step).
Mirai currently makes a "Wall Walker" robot for window cleaning (seen above & below), which uses suction power to adhere to the surface and special drive wheels to move the units over the window automatically.
“WallWalker” is a robot which adheres to a wall or ceiling using a suction cup technology potentially. Cleaning and maintaining wall or ceiling surfaces are difficult to access and very dangerous for people. We believe that “WallWalker” provides safety and convenience for cleaning, inspecting, maintaining, painting and surveiling outside and inside walls, windows and ceilings of various buildings.
The basic mechanism: “WallWalker” has a mechanism to climb on walls and ceilings. This mechanism consists of a special suction cup technology and custom built drive-wheels.The suction cup technology is made of a particular material which glides smoothly, as well as adheres to surfaces by controlling the vacuum pressure inside the suction cup.
Current applications “Window cleaning” - “WallWalker” can run around the surface of a window and clean large scale windows easily. After we push a “start” button, “WallWalker” goes up on the window glass along the window frame, measuring the window size by sensors. After it got the top of the window, it makes a right-angle turn and begins to move sideways. It cleans all the surface of the window, repeating a zigzag movement as it comes down the window.
 |
| Testers opinion: Downsides outweigh upsides. |
Ecovacs Winbot 7 - A Pain in the Glass - Rating: 4/10 Downsides outweigh upsides: $300 Winbot W710 for framed windows, $400 Winbot W730 for frameless window. While the actual process of cleaning my windows is no big deal, the very idea of it inspires procrastination. The step-ladders, the Windex, the aching shoulders, the dull drudgery. I keep wishing for a magic genie to appear and handle the chore. Enter the genie: the Winbot, a dedicated window-cleaning robot from Chinese company Ecovacs Robotics.
Winbot is a five-pound box that latches itself to your glass panes with an industrial-strength suction mechanism. Then, based on what its minuscule sensors detect, it scoots around on its caterpillar feet to wash and dry your windows. You start by spraying a bit of Ecovacs’ formula cleaner on the front pad. Then, attach the included microfiber pads at either end of the robot’s belly. As it moves, the front pad scrubs and the belly pads handle the drying. There’s also a squeegee in between the cleaning and the drying pads.
Once it’s set up, you put the Winbot in the middle of the window, power it on, and the device calculates the distances to the window’s edges. Then off it goes, zig-zagging along back and forth, up and down, cleaning the glass to a streakless shine in about five minutes. There are two models, one for regular windows with frames ($300) and a model for fancier windows without frames ($400) that’s more expensive since it uses extra sensors to keep from running off the edges.
It is not cordless — although the robot has an emergency battery pack to keep it from falling off the window, it draws its power via a fifteen-foot cable that plugs into any socket. If your windows are near a power outlet, great. Otherwise, you will need to use the included 59-inch extension cable, which has a proprietary connector. The extension cable is necessary because the power cord attaches to a power brick, and if you don’t have an extender, that brick will dangle below the Winbot as it cleans, weighing it down and possibly upsetting the suction mechanism. Also, Winbot only works with clear, smooth glass — no frost, no stickers, no grooves. But if Winbot doesn’t get a heavily soiled area clean, an included remote control lets you redirect it to where it needs to go again.
Initial setup involves charging the 400mAh backup batteries (which took me about four hours), applying the Velcro-attached microfiber pads to the Winbot, and delicately spraying the front pad with Ecovacs’ cleaning formula. You can only use the company’s own formula — it claims that ammonia- or acid-based solutions will upset the robot’s sensors — but there’s a bottle in the box.
Depending on how large your windows are, Winbot can take from five minutes to “whatever” to finish its job. But that’s not counting the time it takes to move the device to each side of the window and calibrate it for the pane’s dimensions. Also, if you live above the ground level, you’ll need the “Safety Pod” accessory — an anchor of sorts that keeps the Winbot from taking a fatal tumble to the ground — to use it on the outside of your house.
At this point, it’s becoming pretty clear: if you were to clean the glass yourself, it would take less time and involve much less of a hassle. So I had to ask myself, is it worth spending between $300 and $400 for the robot to accomplish what I’m too lazy to do myself?
The answer is easy: Don’t throw out the Windex just yet.
WIRED Robotic window-cleaner handles windows, mirrors and glass doors. Produces a streakless, residue-free shine. Turns a tiring chore into a relatively painless process.
TIRED High cost. Poor design with a too-short cord. Ultimately just as time-consuming as applying a little elbow grease.
Winbot 710 and 730 aim to take the work out of window cleaning: When it comes to household chores, windows cleaning ranks right up there with, well, window cleaning. There's a reason many people who clean homes for a living tell you they don't do windows, and if they do, you can expect to pay extra for the work.
Enter the brand-new Winbot W710 ($350) and Winbot W730 ($400). These 4.5-pound robots are supposed to let you "clean your windows, glass doors, mirrors and more with just the touch of a button." In one pass, the Winbots run a pad dampened with cleaning solution over glass, squeegee it, and then dry it. The devices hold on by suction and use two antislip treads to move around. You can direct the devices with a remote control. The W710 is designed to work on only framed surfaces; the W730 is designed to handle framed and frameless.
During our tests*, we ran the Winbots on windows of different sizes, on a frameless glass door, on a whiteboard where we'd drawn a grid, and on tilted windows that mimicked a skylight.
Bottom line. The Winbots do windows, but not perfectly. Although they cleaned fingerprints, dust, and streaks, they didn't handle heavy stains, and they sometimes missed a spot. The Winbots don't work on nonvertical surfaces, such as glass tables and skylights. Bear in mind that if you have frameless glass, you'll want the W730, which cleaned those edges well.
The Winbots will save you work but not necessarily time: These robots averaged nearly 30 seconds per square foot of window cleaned; it took us about 8 seconds with a little elbow grease. If you're a gadget junkie or if you have high windows that are hard to clean safely, a Winbot could make sense. Otherwise grab some window cleaner and paper towels. Another blog on Winbot
here.
 |
| Window washers Svyatoslav Hubin, left, and Andriy Mykyta work on the glass curtain of the Rose Center for Earth and Space in Manhattan. |
High Rise of the Machines: Robots Wash Windows: New York’s legion of window washers have long fascinated city dwellers below with their fearlessness. But the future of the profession might belong to those even more impervious to dangerous heights: robots.
Clearing a path to the market soon will be the Winbot 7, a compact machine billed by manufacturer Ecovacs Robotics as the first full-service window-washing robot. The device, which resembles a Roomba vacuum cleaner, attaches itself to the pane, maps out its perimeter and proceeds to clean the surface, playing a tinny tune when the work is completed.
Nick Savadian, executive general manager of the company’s U.S. arm, said the robot is aimed at busy homeowners looking for a labor-saving escape from boring chores. “One thing we’re short of in life is time,” he said. Mr. Savadian allowed that his company’s small robots could have potential applications some day on gleaming skyscrapers, where window work carries risks. “Winbot is very proud to put itself in that position,” he said. “It will clean the outside without taking any chances of liability.”
But the prospect of a near future in which scaffold-riding professionals are replaced by automatons doesn’t appeal to everyone — particularly window washers and the New Yorkers who romanticize them. “Technology is nice — phones and everything — but for window cleaning, I can’t see it,” said William Coffey, who works for Manhattan-based Skyway Window Cleaning and has been in the industry for three decades.
Mr. Coffey has worked alongside cleaning machines at times but said his most important jobs, including the glass observation deck at the Twin Towers, have always been done by human hands. “We’re jumping, we’re going on a scaffold, we’re getting pushed out [by wind], you know, we’re going down the side of a building,” he added. “I can’t see a robot thinking of all the things that have to be done.”
The total number of high-rise window washers in and around the city isn’t clear. The window-cleaning division of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, one of the largest unions, counts 800 members. Andrew Horton, who coordinates safety training for the union’s apprentice window washers, said graduates of the nearly two-year-long program can expect to earn roughly $27 an hour plus $18-a-day fee for working on a scaffold; experienced window cleaners can earn up to $60,000 a year.
In a city defined in no small measure by its towering architecture, Brooklyn Public Library archivist Ivy Marvel believes there is “civic pride” in knowing that window cleaners exist. “It humanizes the city,” she said. “We take a lot of pride in people that do those jobs that only exist in a city like this.”
The city’s sense of window-washing heroism is likely as old as its skyscrapers. Ms. Marvel recently came across a 1952 Brooklyn Daily Eagle profile of Ed Kemp, a window cleaner she describes as fighting a “grimly noble struggle against ambient dirt and pigeon dung.”
Ms. Marvel said she wouldn’t be surprised if she stared up one day and saw machines doing the work. While the Winbot 7 tries to win over homeowners, other companies are already aiming to automate window-washing work for the world’s futuristic mega-towers.
Swiss manufacturer Serbot AG is close to completing a robot dubbed the Gecko, and company salesman Hansjorg Schindler said there are interested customers in Russia, the Middle East and Asia. In Dubai, meanwhile, the 160-story Burj Khalifa was designed to accommodate 18 machines built on horizontal tracks currently assisting human cleaners — equipped with traditional squeegees — in navigating the building’s half-mile façade.
Cameron Riddell, president of J. Racenstein, a company that has supplied window cleaners since 1909, notes that workers in the industry are notoriously hidebound. Some old-school cleaners are so resistant to change that the company still stocks brass-handled squeegees, even though newer models made of plastic offer protection against cold temperatures. “They’re traditionalists,” he said.
Even with advances in robotics, Mr. Riddell believes the idiosyncratic corners, buttresses and recesses of New York’s 20th century skyline will keep humans involved in the trade. “In some cases you could see a machine has benefit but in most cases it’ll be old elbow grease and ingenuity,” he said.
At J. Racenstein, which has offices in Secaucus, N.J., the most high-tech option available is the HighRise Window Cleaning System, which costs up to $50,000 and promises to reduce labor costs by 50%. The machines are operated by technicians and built to fit into existing rigging used by human cleaners.
Steve Sullivan, president of Indianapolis-based American National Skyline, has purchased two of the machines in the hopes of impressing clients and cutting costs. His company’s building managers are keen on limiting liability associated with workers “hanging out of the side of the building,” he said.
Mr. Sullivan said the HighRise can move up and down a 15-story building in about 20 minutes — a feat that would take a person “a considerable amount of time longer.” But he acknowledged the machine wouldn’t work in places like Manhattan, where high-rise buildings are packed together and falling water from the machine would be an issue for pedestrians below.
Mr. Riddell, for his part, doesn’t anticipate a robotic future any time soon that deprives his distributorship of its traditional human customers.”In time there may be some advancement which on a certain building may eliminate men,” he said. “But it’s never going to be a thing where men lose jobs.”
Mr. Horton, the union official, agrees: “I’m in favor of change but I don’t see automation taking over the industry.” Mr. Savadian, the robot maker, understands the general wariness people feel over a robotic future. “Any change is scary. When it’s something new it’s always difficult,” he said. “But once you understand it and adjust to it, you see how much it can improve your lives. Change is a fact of life.”
