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China's First Building-cleaning Robot Starts Work
A lightweight robot that can scale tall buildings and clean their exterior walls was put into use for the first time in the Chinese capital of Beijing on Thursday.
The 38-floor China World Trade Center was chosen as the first work assignment for the mechanical maid, owned and operated by the Beijing Bangjie Robot Automatic Cleaning Co..
Positioned on a sturdy cable, the remote-controlled robot can move up or down nearly 30 floors at 2-10 meters per minute. Using a vacuum hose, it removes grit and grime from the glass surface by spraying liquid detergent and then sucking dirt.
Via a remote control, an on-ground, indoor operator navigated the robot hard at work under the hot sun.
The small, efficient robot can do the work of four people, according to its creators, a team led by Prof. Wang Yan with Harbin Polytechnic University in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
Bangjie General Manager Guo Yuqing bought two of the robots for his company for a total 300,000 yuan (US$36,145). He said that they're more cost-efficient than humans and can clean 120 to 150 square meters of wall surface per hour.
As more high buildings have emerged in Beijing, the municipal government is asking that they be washed regularly.
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