These Robots Do Windows
The window-washing scaffold slid down the side of an office building the way window-washing scaffolds do. It stopped at the 23rd floor, and the two window washers onboard went to work.
Someone on the sidewalk below, looking up, might have thought they were guys in white hazmat suits.
They were not. They were robots.
Their long mechanical arms swept back and forth, scrubbing the glass with brushes that dispensed just enough water to clean away the grime without dripping on the floors below. The system, known as Ozmo, is safer and faster than human window cleaners — more than 60 percent faster, according to Ross Blum, the president and chief operating officer of the company that markets it.
'Repetitive tasks that are dangerous and dirty are rife for automation,' he said, adding that he had 'a deep appreciation' for window washers and what they do. 'It is a tough job,' he said. 'It is a thankless job. It is manual labor at high elevations with variable weather conditions.'
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