ROBOTICS & TECHNOLOGY
The rise in cleaning technology
Liam Smith from Tork manufacturer Essity looks at the technological breakthroughs that have occurred in cleaning and hygiene over the past few decades, and considers how the industry is evolving to become smarter than ever.
A new vacuum cleaner that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to recognise objects, stains and different types of flooring was launched by Samsung this autumn.
The Bespoke Jet Bot Combo uses a built-in camera to recognise spaces and clean them. Once the vacuuming stage has been completed, the machine will return to those areas where it detected stains and remove them using a heated mop pad, steam and water.
Similar technological breakthroughs are being announced every day. It seems hard to believe that just a few decades ago the main tools of the cleaning trade were as rudimentary as a mop, bucket, broom and squeegee.
Technology has revolutionised the cleaning sector, but how did it evolve and what were the earliest solutions and devices we employed to ease the task of cleaning?
An early breakthrough occurred in the 1990s in the form of personal digital assistants, or PDAs. These hand-held devices pre-dated the smartphone and enabled cleaners to submit reports in real time via manually-inputted data. Designed to streamline cleaning rounds, these battery-powered units were operated via a touchscreen and a stylus, and required a flash-drive or solid-state memory for storage.
Cleaning robots first entered the market in the late 1990s but many of the early models had a tendency to collide with walls, stop short of objects and leave parts of the floor uncleaned. Another major issue was the fact that humans
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were required to monitor the machine’s water supply and battery levels.
This all changed in 2002 with the launch of the iRobot Roomba, which was able to detect dirty spots on the floor and change direction when encountering an obstacle.
Today’s robots can sense when their battery is running out or when the water supply is running low. They will then direct themselves to the nearest refilling or charging station. So, today’s robots are becoming more viable all the time – and they are also becoming more affordable.
The availability of robots has grown substantially over the past 20 years as a result, and a wide range of autonomous vacuums, scrubbing machines and mopping systems are now available on the market.
The mobile phone revolution has also had a significant role to play in cleaning. Early mobiles were mainly used for transmitting SMS messages and taking low-res images, but they then found a niche in staff-checking systems whereby employees used them to check in on site via text. If they failed to do so, a message would automatically be sent to the cleaning company to alert them of a potential no-show.
The world of digital communications opened up much more widely after the iPhone was launched in 2007. Android alternatives soon followed and suddenly the internet offered a huge range of possibilities. The ‘Internet of things’ (IoT) became the new catchphrase as everyone made strides to
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