Sweep is an industrial robot for cleaning hard floors with applications in warehouses, factories, hotels, commercial premises, railway stations, airports, hospitals, etc. The estimated surface area of these premises in Romania exceeds 16 million m2. “Sweep marks a landmark moment for research in Romania, being the first robot with autonomous navigation developed and produced locally, by top Romanian specialists in the field,” said Paul Popescu, CEO Agora Robotics.
Sweep’s development has included energy efficiency. The robot has a low energy consumption, thus contributing to reducing operational costs and protecting the environment. The machine also allows for detailed reporting of water, detergent and energy consumption, to know the resources consumed, as well as data about the space and when it was cleaned for efficiency and transparency of processes.
Featuring a heavy-duty metal housing and stainless steel basins, the Sweep is easy to programme and has the capacity to clean large areas of around 8,700 square metres within 24 hours, in cycles of five hours on and two hours off. Equipped with a complex system of sensors, cameras and communication technology, certified for the automotive industry, Sweep moves precisely within a scanned perimeter and has the ability to avoid people and obstacles when needed, harmonising with the working environment. The docking station contributes to the device’s autonomy. It has the ability to change waste water, clean the tank and refuel itself. Human intervention is only required when programming it and changing consumables – detergent, brushes, wiper blades.
“Sweep integrates know-how, artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art technology resulting also from external collaborations, including through the Nvidia Inception program, in which the company is enrolled, and through cooperation with Merphi, a company specialized in robot design in Sweden”, says Paul Popescu, CEO Agora Robotics.
Agora Robotics is a deep tech company and pioneer in the field of robotics, created in Romania by specialists in technology research and development.
“We created Sweep in the context of a growing market and a significant shortage of manpower in the cleaning sector,” added Ioana Calen, Chief Operating Officer Agora Robotics. “The global market for non-residential floor cleaning robots is estimated to be around 836 million euros in 2023 and will reach 3.5 billion euros in 2030. Autonomous mobile robots are intended to take over those repetitive, difficult and less productive tasks, allowing employees to focus on more important, value-added tasks,” she added.
Sweep specifications
- Dimensions: 735 x 530 x 710 mm
- Weight: 115 kg
- Clean/used water tank capacity: 23l / 25l
- Working front width: 450 mm
- Cleaning speed: 0,4 m/s
- Estimated productivity: 8,700 sqm/day
- Average lifetime: 5 years
- Warranty: 3 years
- Cleaning cycle: 5 hours
- Load cycle: 2 hours
In the long term, Agora Robotics aims to implement already developed autonomous navigation technologies in other products that will form an ecosystem of automation solutions. Possible future applications: logistics, monitoring agriculture and construction.