ROBOTICS
Robots on the march
Words Cameron Cooper
In the race to cut costs and offer more hygienic commercial and industrial cleaning services, facility managers are increasingly considering a new generation of autonomous machines.
30 INCLEAN July / August 2022
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ne of the largest shopping centres in Australia, located on the Gold Coast, presents a daily challenge to maintain the highest possible cleaning standards. However, the Trident Services Australia night cleaning crew which has that job now has a new team member who is making a difference – a Gausium Scrubber 75 robot. It can run without intervention for almost five hours alongside a cleaning team that can now focus on more detailed cleaning tasks, rather than floor care. “The twin problems of a labour shortage and a high minimum wage in Australia are both now much easier to manage while keeping the mall showcase clean,” says Tom Culver, Australian country manager for Gausium, which has about 5000 autonomous cleaning robots working around the world in facilities such as shopping malls, airports, schools, offices, shopping malls, hospitals and hotels.
The same Scrubber 75 machines have been used to clean many international sites, including the Mass Transit Railway network in Hong Kong. They can empty and top up water and charge themselves automatically without human assistance. Their sensors also allow them map out the best cleaning routes. Other robots in the Gausium range include the Phantas (a compact all-in-one model with four cleaning modes), the Scrubber 50 (for smaller centres and supermarkets) and the Vacuum 40 (an autonomous vacuuming robot).
CHANCE TO SAVE TIME AND MONEY
The Gausium robots are part of a new breed of autonomous cleaning machines that are being rolled out in Australia and New Zealand as building services contractors and facility managers seek to save time and introduce efficiencies into their cleaning and hygiene workflows.