"Spider-Man" appears, no worries about exterior wall cleaning

We are in 2023, and we have made huge leaps in technology, from electric cars to gene editing, from 3D printing to nanosatellites to artificial intelligence, but even today, the windows of most skyscrapers are washed by hand by window cleaners on ropes with buckets of soapy water. Is it possible that this dangerous work will be handled by robots in the future?

Current exterior wall cleaning uses a remote controlled mechanical device called a BMU, which is usually suspended from the roof and systematically moved on some structural surface while a person stands on the suspended platform to clean and maintain the covered surface. The design of the BMU is complex, it is fixed to the roof of the building and extends to the terrace above the building along with some structural members, with any suspended platform-like bracket at the end for moving up and down. The BMU provides vertical, horizontal and lateral movement for the suspended platform to access any external corner or surface of the building.

A team at Verobotics, an Israeli startup, has developed a lightweight robot that can climb the facades of buildings like Spider-Man. "It's like an iRobot that you put on the floor and can go anywhere. It's basically the same principle," said Genosar, the startup's founder. "The navigation is automatic and based on computer vision solutions."

The company's cleaning robot moves around like a crab, raising one arm, moving it, attaching it to the glass, then raising the other arm and so on, so it's actually crawling all over the building, checking the exterior for any repairs needed as it moves.

This exterior cleaning robot clings to the side of a building using complex suction cups. There is a base unit with a winch that fits on the roof of the building. The robot uses suction cups and actuators (devices that create suction) to climb up the building, and the robot actually walks vertically on the building. Instead of using water, liquids, soap or anything like that, the robot uses some secretly concocted cleaning agent, a unique mechanical cleaning process that is friendlier to glass surfaces. The robot can clean once a month or every two months, instead of every 6 or even 12 months like a cleaner, who must use a cleaner that is more harmful to glass to maintain the cleanliness level of the building.

The efficiency of the robot for cleaning the exterior walls is also very high. It can clean four times the area of ​​windows in a day than the cleaners on ropes. The window cleaners actually clean for no more than five hours in an eight-hour shift, and they can only clean the areas that their arms can reach. The robot can even work 24 hours a day. The robot can also provide cleaning services at night after get off work, but it is quite dangerous for cleaners to work at night, and working during the day usually requires informing the building users of some matters. Various examples show that if robots as flexible as humans can be used for exterior wall cleaning, it will be a very smart, safe, efficient and environmentally friendly way to clean.

The Verobotics team has signed a $5.4 million deal to automate exterior cleaning and safety inspections at office buildings in Central, Hong Kong. The robot uses its cameras and other sensors to map the exterior of the building and update it regularly, meaning it can warn of potential exterior glass safety issues, alerting managers to fix them and keep tenants and pedestrians safe.

Although there are small glass cleaning robots for home use on the market, it is not realistic to use them in office buildings. This kind of humanoid robot designed specifically for exterior wall cleaning is more competent for this task. Perhaps in the near future, many "Spider-Men" will appear on the glass curtain walls of office buildings at night, busy cleaning the exterior glass, so that people who come to work early the next morning can see a bright world outside the window.