World News Now That’s Working at Height
The Weisman Art Museum, Minnesota was spruced up this month and given a much needed clean by its own staff!
The masterpiece of architecture, designed by Frank Gehry in 1993, awash with zig-zagging edges, may look like a space-age mansion, but
those stainless steel contortions are a real pain in the squeegee when it comes to keeping clean.
The unnatural twists and turns in the building may look impressive to visitors, but they are ideal for harbouring dirt and grime build-ups, which aren’t very appealing to the public. Even a downpour of rain can leave dirty water marks and sodden foliage.
All this seems pretty straight forward for a commercial cleaning company so far though, right? Wrong. The museum doesn’t even employ a separate company to tackle the job – they use Weisman staff!
Using a mild, diluted solution once every two years, the cleaning process (lasting around a week) is more of a cost saving exercise of large proportions. The mammoth building clocks up an expenditure of around US$2,500, while quotes from professional cleaning companies sit comfortably in the tens of thousands.
John Allen, Director of Security and Building Operations, and Emily Foxen, Event Coordinator, are the double act responsible for the big clean-up, performing nothing short of a balancing act with the rental of a JLG aerial lift, or cherry picker.
But it’s not all bad. Emily even joked: “I get to work on my tan.“
Is The Human Touch A Thing Of The Past In Sydney?
Cleaners of Sydney Harbour Bridge have been busy working away on the grit and grim before it is repainted, but there are no overalls and break- time snacks in sight, as the whole thing is being completed by robots.
Cleaning the bridge is normally considered a task too dangerous for humans, so Sydney’s cry for help was met by the students of The University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). They had entered into a contract with UniQuest, who commissioned them to build an intelligence system for the commercialised cleaning of the massive steel landmark.
CEO of UniQuest, Dean Moss, said: “Maintenance involves heavy duty grit-blasting, which is a fatiguing and potentially hazardous task for the blasters, and costly. Australia spends over AU$200million each year on bridge maintenance alone.”
12 | WORLD NEWS
So who stumped up the cash for this futuristic venture? Apparently, it was the Australian company, Burwell Technologies, who placed major investments in the Sydney robotics start-up, named Sabre Autonomous Solutions. Sabre is a new Australian robotics company established by UTS, and the plan is to have the robots provide regular maintenance.
Being the world’s fi rst autonomous robot designed for commercial cleaning, they work by shooting out a jet of compressed air to cut through whatever rust, chipped paint and general dirt is on the surface.
The robots weigh 25kg, and have sensors and cameras to navigate unfamiliar terrain, but they still need the human hand for guidance. They work by scanning the area, creating a 3D map, and based on this, they work out just how much pressure should be applied for the job. But don’t get too close – the blasters are
strong enough to cut through more than just paint; they can even slash through people’s clothes and skin.
Martin Lloyd, Innovation and Commercial Development Manager at UTS, told the press: “We now have two autonomous, grit-blasting robots on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which is a world-fi rst technology.” The idea came about after a recent collaboration between UTS and Australia’s Roads and Maritime Service.
Waruna Kaluarachchi, of Australia’s Roads and Maritime Service, said: “The job is very risky. The bridge vibrates because of the traffi c and it has complex geography, which is why we approached UTS to see if a machine could do this kind of work.”
Due to the circumstance of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, repainting is certainly an ongoing job. If the robots succeed in a job well done, they will no doubt remain as permanent members of the maintenance team.
www.tomorrowscleaning.com
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