Peter Webster, managing director of Initial Air Services, has much experience of trying to apply robotic cleaning technology in a wide range of cleaning situations. He still sees some prob lems which have to be overcome before we witness widespread use of robotic scrubber driers. "Initial has car ried out a great deal of research including product trials - into robotic cleaning machines because we feel it is vital to keep abreast of new technology and developments. The key is navigation technology, which is where the real breakthroughs will be made."

But the greatest factor holding back the progress of robotic technology according to Peter is the presence of so many versions in the market. "Each manufacturer is introducing its own machine but there is no industry standard - one single system which is going to be generally accepted. This means most contractors are holding back on choosing a system because they are waiting to see which is to be the 'standard', so the market is just not moving forward.

"The manufacturers really need to get together and form that industry standard instead of each going their own separate way. We contractors need to have the confidence to buy robotic machines knowing they incorporate the right system and the right technology, not something which will be obsolete almost immediately."

Peter also firmly believes the advent of robotic technology will not eliminate the need for human operatives. "Robotics and humans will work together," he explained, "because humans will always have to be involved in detailed floor maintenance and cleaning tasks. But I do believe a potential 80 per cent of floor areas could be cleaned by robots. As labour becomes more expensive, so robotics becomes more viable and if we could reach a stage where robotics are doing even 10 per cent of the work, productivity could be improved dramatically."

In the longterm, Initial is optimistic about the future for robots. Peter concluded: "I am confident robots will become widely accepted, and will in fact be the norm for our industry one day."

June/July 1997

Reality of robotics

Much theoretical discussion is heard about the use of robotic technology in scrubber driers, but what is the reality? European Cleaning's French correspondent Marie-Claire Kuhnmunch visits the Paris Metro, where robotics really are a reality in the cleaning operation. We also talk to Peter Webster of Initial Air Services, who sees some obstacles to be overcome before the technology becomes widespread.

It is around 9am at the gare de Lyon or Chatelet-les-Halles stations, the interchanges of the main lines between the metro and the Réseau Express Regional (RER) which goes beyond the heart of the capital to the suburbs. An absent-minded passer-by blocks the path of the robotic scrubber drier- it slows down, sounds its horn and stops if necessary. This is not a futuristic fictional sce nario - it is a reality which takes its shape in the form of a robotic sweeper or scrubber drier by Comatec with Ronosol and the Compagnie Générale de Nettoyage's USP, a branch of the Compagnie Générale des Eaux.

"These are the best example of cleaning robots in the world," explained Alain Lefèvre, a project chief of PR0 TEE, which claims to have given rise to the present robotisation of Hako and Wetrok machines. There are now 30 machines which clean the Paris Métro.

Jean-Marc Champeil, technical direc tor of Compagnie Général de Nettoyage, explained the origins of the project. " In 1985 RATP, the Paris metro authority, wanted its cleaning services to take on a new image. So they invited tenders to clean its stations." The operation, once entrusted to 16 different contractors, was to now be carried out by a single group.

It was the Comatec project which captivated RATP. The company won the business and was given a budget of 70 million francs over 10 years for a programme of research and development of metro cleaning robots.

The first robot was a purely French product, christened Combiné Autonome de Balayage, CABX. It weighed 500kg, climbed and went down stairs but it was not without problems - including safety of the public. Its operation was limited and above all, expensive - two million francs. "We had the intelligence," explained Champeil, "all we had to do was apply it to another kind of machine which was simpler, cheaper and which could be mass operated."

1992 saw the launch of the second generation of robots. Five years later, the operation is going so well RATP has decided to carry on for another seven years- indeed, in January 1996 it renewed the first contract signed 10 years before.

The CABX robots now move by using a self-guiding system coordinated by an on-board micro-computer, made up of a number of components. Movement coders evaluate distances, while direction indicators work out the course. Magnetic beacon readers are planted in the ground to re-adjust the robot's course and distance according to a preset trajectory. Human intervention is therefore limited to taking the robot to the starting point of its working circuit and to answering its hypo thetical calls for safety reasons. It is also a matter of value for money - the new generation of machines is not only "perfectly operational, it is balanced," added Champeil. "Each robot costing 450,000 francs pays for itself within four years by saving a job, ie, 150,000 francs."

Maintenance costs are no higher than those of normal cleaning maçhines. 'Studding', ie planting magnetic beacons in the ground, is not excessively expensive in itself. It just requires state-of-the-art know-how.

There is only one problem - the course cannot be modified, even though the variety of movement commands available (half turns, quarter turns, tight angles, etc) and the sys tem tolerance to slight deviations allow programming on the ground of a large variety of cleaning circuits.