Clean living (Image: Fraunhofer IPA)

Video: Robot cleaner tidies up an office building

ROOMBAS were just the start. An office cleaning robot is being put through its paces by Dussmann, one of Germany’s largest cleaning companies, at its Berlin HQ. The goal is getting it to work alongside human cleaners in large offices, emptying bins and vacuuming floors.

The robot was developed by roboticist Richard Borman and colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart. It is designed to do two tasks – clean the floors and empty wastepaper baskets – with complete autonomy. It can recognise dirt on the floor and identify wastepaper baskets before its robotic arm grabs and then empties each bin.


At the moment, it cleans too slowly for Dussmann. “Humans can do about 450 to 500 square metres an hour,” says Borman. “The robot can do 100 to 120 square metres an hour.”

Borman is applying for a grant to work with Dussmann and develop a commercial model that should be much quicker. It also needs a longer-lasting battery: the prototype has only four hours of power – a commercial version would need to run all night.

Only big offices are suitable for this kind of robot; humans would have to move it between small offices, which negates the benefits. Other cleaning robots do exist, but they can’t navigate a building autonomously and have one function.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Robot cleaner can empty bins and sweep floors”