Cleaning industry in general has developed a great deal in the last decade or two, making the cleaning quick and fuss free. However, technologies are stepping up to make cleaning more efficient & time consuming. Technology has played a large part in the development of commercial and industrial cleaning. It has always been a tough job to reach high rise buildings, civil infrastructure or large facilities. This is where the clever tech played a big role and aided or replaced the human operative in these hard-to-reach areas, enabling the windows/facade of commercial buildings to be cleaned by drone technologies. 

Since the introduction of drones in the commercial sector and after the big use of it in the agriculture industry, the cleaning industry resorted to implementing them. High rise commercial window cleaning can be a very risky and time consuming effort. Few pioneer companies have come to the conclusion that drone technology could help in the facade/windows cleaning including other types of surface where rope access can’t be cleaned. 

Drone Cleaning is also considered very safe as it does not require any rope access or human interaction in the cleaning. Drone cleaning eliminates the requirements for workers to physically access these heights and dangerous environments surrounding them. The drone cleaning team requires one pilot in the ground who operates the drone as per pre-assessment procedures that will take place before the cleaning activities. 

Multi-storey buildings, other civil infrastructures and businesses in general especially in the GCC region have come up with unique structures that give the cleaning companies lots of challenges. Rope cleaning only cleans limited surfaces whereas a drone cleans all types of surfaces and reaches all types of shapes and curves. 

How does drone technology work? 

The drone cleaning technology has two current concepts -  one operational and one still under development or testing. 

1- Manual/Autonomous Drone: 

This concept is considered 80% manual and 20% autonomous. The operational concept that few companies have been promoting is the drone can fly from 110 meters to 140 meters height from the ground up and from the roof down which is a total of 220 meters - 280 meters. The drone is about 1*1 meter in size and it gets assembled within 10 minutes & weighs 25kg. The drone has a hose attached to it that affects the weight of the drone while flying.  This hose is made from light materials and connects the drone to the power pump in the ground or the roof to push the water up or down to the drone. The drone is equipped with a camera (first personal view) that will allow the pilot on the ground to see what the drone is picturing and make the washing easier. The drone is also equipped with low & high pressure nozzle that could be used either for the regular facade cleaning or industrial infrastructure cleaning. It is also equipped with LTE & 5G connectivity similar to the smartphone and that is why they call it “flying smartphone”.  It has IOT sensors that support data analysis & data gathering thru the the cloud connectivities and the benefits of that to feed the CAFM/BMS softwares. 

The drone uses pure water technologies with Eco-Friendly chemicals mixture and that is what differentiates each company in this field. The type of chemical mixture that is being used next to the pure water. 

Drone technologies can clean 400-600 Square/Meter per hour which will reduce the time frame of cleaning by 73% of the traditional facade/windows cleaning.

2- Autonomous Drone: 

The second type is still under development as of today; the fully autonomous drone that can fly from the command center to the assigned building to perform windows/facade cleaning by itself where it is equipped with cleaning solution and a squeegee. These types of drone as per the concept will be smaller in size than the regular cleaning drone. A pilot flies it up to each window, applies the cleaner and then cleans it off. 

The advantages of the drone technologies in cleaning industry: 

• Drones can reach parts humans can’t.
• Drones can make inspections of buildings and find places that need to be cleaned.
• They are far quicker.
• They are more cost effective.
• They can carry heavy loads.
• They can clean all types of surfaces ( Windows, Tiles, Bricks, Concrete, etc)
• Drone technologies can be used in all types of industry ( Residential, Commercials & industrials ). 

About the author:

Sharif Talib Kateeb has over 19+ years of rich and insightful experience, including over 13 years in the GCC. A proactive and result oriented Professional, with an accomplished track record for Data Center Facilities Management & Digital transformation processes and procedures to facilitate full compliance with international standards. Experience in Telecommunication & Consultancy with focus on technology trends.