The future of commercial floor cleaning is here with autonomous self-driving floor scrubber.

Canadian company Avidbots builds fully autonomous floor cleaning robots like NEO which is the next step in commercial floor cleaning technology.

Neo’s (Yes from the 199 sci-fi film with Keanu Reeves, The Matrix) are already being used in top of the line places like Changi Airport, Singapore and Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris.

The founders of the company built the early prototypes from the ground up. They said that it was the more difficult road but in the long run proved the better option.

At its 40,00 sq-ft factory in Kitchener, Ontario, the manufacturing team tests and quality check their Neo’s before delivery to customers. The company currently have sales of $3 million but can grow to $20 million in the coming years.

Neo sells for $50,000 a pop and the company says depending on the location, an investment in the machine will be paid off in 18 to 24 months. Versus buying a conventional cleaner that costs about $15000, the operating company would also have to pay for labor costs and deal with inconsistencies in cleaning. In this automation business, the shiny things are nice to have but the economics must also work for the buyer and end user.

Neo can boost productivity with its world-class navigation, higher than average water tank capacity and also better run times. It is also equipped with state-of-the-art sensor technology using 3D cameras and AI learning to navigate and learn floor cleaning patterns.

The robot can also be programmed and control from a web-portal command center that can provide real time cleaning updates and better visibility of operations. The command center program can provide detailed reports on productivity, water usage, adapt to new floor cleaning plans and also maintenance timelines.

For more information on the Neo, you can check out the product brochure here.

Demand for autonomous cleaning robots is rising. South Korea is bringing the Neo platform through a partnership with Daeduck International, a leading commercial hardware provider in South Korea. Neo has already been used in three other markets including Japan and a regional office in Hong Kong.

The future of automating cleaning tasks can free up time for staff to focus on unique tasks and services that are more important to the bottom line of a business.

We wrote about BrainCorp, a San Diego based company that also builds cleaner robots has partnered with Walmart to bring their own floor cleaner robot. To make it even better, Walmart is also using a robot by Bossanova to scan shelves and update inventory levels. Pretty cool!

On the topic of Walmart, this one will blow your mind. See Alphabot!

Back at Avidbots, NEO is purpose-built and the company straight-up says on their website that "the customer is boss" and they strive to deeply understand their needs. 

Avidbots and The Monster share our passions in using robots and Arduino to make life easier for humans. The robots have no problem doing, over and over, the boring tasks and the humans want to do the fun tasks.

We should all build robots that care for us and can exceed our needs so we can have time to do the wonderful, important activities that matter.

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