Automatic sweepers and robotic floor scrubbers for industrial cleaning? Has the time come?

Eureka’s position on the addition of robotics to professional floor cleaning equipment is clear:

It’s not yet time.

“Eureka’s internal design team has already begun work in this area – states Gianfranco Lago, CEO of the company – and it wouldn’t be possible to postpone the exploration of such a revolutionary chapter in our sector. But the technology isn’t readily available enough to manufacture machines that deliver the high standards that our clients are used to”.

We’re talking about producing an industrial robotic floor scrubber or professional robotic sweeper; machines that must be resistant to extreme stress, and capable of working intensely in a multitude of industrial contexts and with different types of dirt and debris.

Floor cleaning robots with complex programming, that guarantee quality cleaning and safe handling in every phase - from the initial set up of the equipment, to its every day maintenance - are still futuristic ideas.

“The automotive industry has greater dimensions and more resources for R&D, in respect to any of the players in the cleaning sector – adds Lago – and even so, we still haven’t started to see cars on the road that drive themselves. It’s therefore difficult to think that a complete and trustworthy solution is available in our sector, except for those proposals which have extremely limited capabilities and unsustainable costs”.

At this moment, the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the first man on the moon, the urgency felt by many to have completely automated floor cleaning solutions, recalls in some respects the race to conquer space. At that time, the development of new technologies and the claims of their invention, often became subject to propaganda before they were accessible and trustworthy. In the same way, all the talk today about robotics being applied to industrial cleaning, seems above all to announce what tomorrow could be like, instead of describing concrete possibilities that exist in the present.  

There will be the moment in which Eureka presents its own robotic sweepers, and self-driving floor scrubbers. Given how rapidly one innovation leads to the next, the moment could be even sooner than expected, but that day is not today.