Window washing as a profession can be dangerous. It’s not that every day brings danger; it’s that when there is an accident, the results are often horrific, as OSHA records show.
A company called Skyline Robotics reckons humans shouldn’t be doing the job at all. To that end they’ve developed Ozmo, a robotic arm that washes windows.
A pair of these on a scaffold can wash a skyscraper “about three times faster” than human workers.
The company says Ozmo “knows how fragile glass is, and its force sensor informs it about the exact amount of pressure needed to clean windows superbly.” It “sees” via Lidar, and AI keeps the ‘bot’s motions stable in high winds.
Ozmo is in production. Here it is in action in New York City:
I’m sure the skyscraper contracts are juicy, but I’d love to see a domestic version; I wonder what kind of form they’d come up with, to tackle a two-story house. Getting on a ladder with a pressure washer can get pretty dicey, and I’d think that industry would welcome a safer way to go, too. I’d be curious to see what form they’d devise—maybe something like that graffiti-erasing drone?
