108 Cleaning the windows of high-rise buildings is one of those dull/dirty/dangerous jobs that cries out for an automated and uncrewed solution. Skyline Robotics now offers one in the form of the Ozmo, which consists of a robotic arm that rides in a building’s existing window cleaning cradle, and an intelligent control system that runs the arm, the cleaning tools and the cradle. Unlike earlier robotic window cleaning systems that used pre-programmed cleaning routines unique to each building, the Ozmo maps the building and works out how to clean the windows as it goes, giving it much more general applicability. Skyline Robotics was founded in 2017 by Israeli inventors and entrepreneurs Avi Abadi and Yaron Schwarcz, who hold the patent on the “device and method for use in cleaning a facade” that became the Ozmo. The idea stemmed from a desire to get into robotics and from conversations with professionals in property management and maintenance who identified high-rise window cleaning as a task currently performed in an antiquated and risky manner that was ripe for automation. In 2020, Skyline’s board decided that the founders had taken the company almost as far as they could, and that it was therefore time to bring in others who could take it further, so president and chief operating officer Ross Blum and chief executive officer Michael Brown joined the company in December that year. These days, Skyline has partnerships with Kuka for robotics, Platinum and Principle Cleaning Services for operations, Karcher for r&d and Gefen for venture capital. Peter Donaldson reports on how this uncrewed system brings the windows of tall buildings back to their best Windows of opportunity December/January 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Two Ozmo robots operating as a coordinated multi-arm window cleaning system, a concept the company is now commercialising (Courtesy of Skyline Robotics)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mzk4