![]() It can also do night cleaning,” says Brown. “The robot can clean three to four times quicker than a human, doesn’t need to go to the bathroom, and doesn’t need to take a break. It simply doesn’t appeal to the younger generation, which is why three quarters of US windows cleaners are aged over 40. Recruiting human window cleaners is now tougher than ever. The robots descend from the building maintenance unit – a crane-like device – common to all tall buildings. He’s also interested in Dubai and the UAE, home to the world’s tallest building, the 160-story 828-meter Burj Khalifa, and many other super-skyscrapers.īrown is busy disrupting a $40 billion window cleaning industry that has, he says, done little to keep up with the ever-growing number of skyscrapers. Because New York is the most regulated market, in the world, for work at heights,” says Brown. “We’re rolling it out very strategically with the largest building developers in New York first. Globally there are 68,000 buildings tall enough to have the BMU – building maintenance unit – that supports the baskets that can hold the robots. They include the 104-story One World Trade Center – the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere – the new 7 World Trade Center, rebuilt after being damaged in the Twin Towers tragedy, and the 55-story Bank of America Tower, also known as 1 Bryant Park. Last month the company announced an investment deal from the real estate giant Durst Ventures, an affiliate of The Durst Organization, that owns some of New York City’s most notable buildings. The robots are now tried, tested, patent-pending and hard at work. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter Subscribe It intricately scans building surfaces, memorizing every curve and edge. He teamed up with Avi Abadi, who’d founded Skyline Robotics in 2017 and who had already developed a prototype of the technology using lidar (light detection and ranging), force sensors which provide it with a sense of touch and sight, and advanced algorithms to calculate optimal cleaning paths. “And I said to myself, I cannot believe people are still cleaning windows by hand. ![]() “I was driving in New York City, which obviously has a tremendous number of tall buildings,” he says. It was 2019, he’d signed a seven-year “non-compete” agreement, and he was looking for a fresh challenge. If the wind starts blowing, the basket will sway, and anything over 25mph is generally deemed too dangerous for window cleaners to work.īrown was in business supplies before he sold out for big bucks to Office Depot and then to Staples ($400 million and $300 million respectively). You’ve got the sun coming off of the windows, and you literally feel like you’re in an oven.” “It is so dangerous the heat is not to be believed. “Cleaning windows is the worst job in the world,” Brown tells NoCamels. Its a dull, dirty and dangerous job, says Michael Brown. It’s then moved along sideways to begin its next descent, until the whole building is done. Ozmo then works its way down the side of the building, using its own version of driverless car technology to map the façade, and clean it with soap-free de-ionized water. ![]() It’s lowered in a basket from the crane-like device (or building maintenance unit) common to all tall buildings. Skyline proudly describes its machine, called Ozmo, as “the world’s first high-rise window-cleaning robot”. But they’re hit-and-miss in terms of actually getting the windows clean and they’re not designed for buildings over 10 stories. Other companies have experimented with automated window cleaning solutions, mostly using rollers, like a car wash. Robots do the job much better, they can do it at least three times quicker, and they mean lives are no longer being put at risk. “The problem, put simply, is that cleaning windows at height is extremely dangerous.” The “dirty, dull and dangerous” job of cleaning steel and glass skyscrapers has cost thousands of lives, according to Michael Brown, CEO & chairman of Skyline Robotics, based in Tel Aviv. Ozmo, the window cleaning robot, in action. But more important than all of that… they save lives.
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