Issue Date: 11 October 2017
Ref: DIV17/21
Rise of the Machines – Robotic Cleaning of Sports Facilities
The advent of autonomous robotic floorcare machines such as the TASKI Intellibot presents cleaning teams responsible for sports facilities with an excellent opportunity to improve productivity, enhance results and reduce costs.
Although robotic cleaners can be used in many settings, they deliver maximum efficiency when able to roam freely in large and open areas with few obstructions for the majority of the time. This is precisely the sort of hard floor found in sports facilities – in halls, corridors and reception areas.
Large and open areas are also where conventional cleaning can be at its least efficient. Some cleaning teams persist with mop and bucket cleaning but this can be very time consuming, leaving aside the relatively poor results that are achieved.
Enlightened teams are more likely to use a scrubber drier because these can cover larger areas quickly, deliver excellent results and leave floors clean and dry ready for further use. Despite these benefits, using a conventional scrubber drier is a mundane task. Operatives can be tied up for long periods on this repetitive but necessary chore when they could be more usefully employed doing other cleaning tasks that require higher skills.
This is where the TASKI Intellibot scrubber drier offers significant advantages over conventional cleaning techniques. Once programmed using simple instructions it can work on its own, with minimal direct supervision, to cover large areas quickly and efficiently following a predetermined path. Its in-built routines ensure that it covers the entire area in the minimum amount of time without any undue overlapping or missing any parts of the floor.
By working independently, the Intellibot effectively enables “hands-free” cleaning that delivers a significant boost in overall productivity. The supervisor is liberated to focus on other tasks that require specific skills, enhance the appearance of the building or add-value. This might include, for example, carrying out detail or high-level cleaning or working on floors where the machine cannot efficiently operate such as close to walls or around fixtures and fittings.
Deploying a machine in this way allows one member of the cleaning team to do the same amount of work that previously required two people (including the one operating the machine). The biggest benefits are achieved on larger floors because the machine can run for the longest possible periods without any intervention, effectively maximising the amount of time when this double working is possible. Given that labour represents the largest cost component of any cleaning activity it is not hard to make a business case for robotic cleaning. The more the machine is used, the easier the case is made.
The on-board technologies that ensure the machine covers all areas with minimum of overlap are also able to report which parts of the floor have not been cleaned. This could be, for example, when an obstruction was present. This means operators can offer an enhanced service by ensuring “missed” areas are mapped so that they can be cleaned later. They can also verify performance to support compliance.
The same systems continuously monitor the status and performance of the machine and, with their connectivity to the Internet of Clean, can automatically alert managers to a wide range predetermined incidents. This can include reporting a collision, a low battery or some other diagnostic event. Managers can then intervene proactively and take remedial action before the machine’s performance impacts on the operation or leads to an outage.
The TASKI Intellibot machines can be equipped with different cleaning pad types and a wide variety of floorcare products so that they can give optimum performance on any type of flooring. Diversey Care offers a complete range of pads and products for use with TASKI machines, including the TASKI Intellipad range.