While it might not feel like Fall quite yet, the things we associate with the season are back once again—like college and university campuses across the country bustling with the energy of a new academic year. These days, more and more students are returning to campuses where exciting new robotic technology awaits them. Let’s take a look at what they might find, and how robots for various purposes are becoming useful additions to the college and university landscape. 

 

This is probably one of the smartest investments in commercial robotic technology that educational facilities can make right now. Cleaning large stretches of flooring throughout multiple high-traffic buildings each day takes campus facilities and custodial staff an inordinate amount of time and effort. That’s because most commercial sweepers and scrubbers—even efficient, high-end ones—require a human operator to push or walk with the unit, even as the machine does the work. This repetitive, relatively low-skill task takes up vast amounts of time that custodial staff could spend doing higher-value and more detailed work.

 

Floor cleaning robots like CC1 and CC3 can automate this type of work, covering up to 15,000 sq ft of flooring per hour while cleaning to a very high standard. Campuses with even larger expanses of flooring to clean can also find great value in the extra-large CC5, an autonomous sweeper and scrubber designed as an alternative to traditional ride-on scrubbers. Ideal for vast spaces such as sport courts, arenas, warehousing areas and extra-long corridors, this titan can clean up to 40,000 sq ft per hour, all hands-free.

 

New software integrations like Pringle NOC and Pringle Pristine perfectly complement autonomous cleaning robots for campus facility management. Pringle NOC (Network Operations Console) allows facility custodial teams to monitor, track, and view 

detailed task reports from all cleaning robots, building IoT sensors, and other connected cleaning equipment. This gives campus facility managers vital insight into equipment usage, robot health and workflow efficiency, ensuring absolute transparency in facility cleaning operations. 

 

Pringle Pristine is a task management and tracking solution for custodial staff that improves efficiency and reporting. It incorporates data and configurations from the NOC to build task lists for custodial staff. Based on defined workflows and sensor data, Pristine provides real-time updates to scheduled custodial duties to ensure the most efficient use of staff time. Data collected from Pristine, such as cleaning times, can be used to further adjust workflows and schedules.

 

Automating tedious jobs like floor cleaning frees up an enormous amount of time for facilities and custodial staff. Software integrations like Pringle NOC and Pringle Pristine offer a revolutionary approach to data accessibility and technology integration for campus facility management. And because robotic cleaning technology is so efficient and labor saving, the robotic assets often pay for themselves within a year or two by allowing educational institutions to do more with existing staff versus hiring additional custodians.

 

Not to be confused with the campus-wide food delivery robots that are becoming a common sight at many universities, indoor robots for foodservice are less rugged, more interactive, and just as helpful. These types of robots are typically used by restaurants and catering businesses to greet and guide guests, run food to tables, and bus dishes. Of course, food running may not apply to traditional university dining halls, where the setup is generally cafeteria style, and students carry their own food to tables. 

 

But colleges and universities of all sizes now also incorporate franchise and retail dining options on campus. Food running robots like BellaBoT can be useful for these types of foodservice outposts, which often operate with fewer staff and can be prone to crowding as customers wait around for their food to be ready. BellaBoT can help quell the crush by running orders to set locations as soon as they’re ready. And customers can relax knowing that the BoT will bring their food right to them. Plus, students and staff get a kick out of BellaBoT’s interactive cat-inspired face and audio prompts. 

 

Even traditional cafeteria-style setups can benefit from robotic automation. We all know that students are supposed to take their trays, plates and cups to the self-bussing area as they leave the dining hall. But that doesn’t always happen. Plus, a static bussing station requires dining staff to routinely fetch heavy bus tubs full of dishes and take them back to the sanitation area for washing. Dining facilities could dramatically cut down staff time spent transporting bus tubs and encourage responsible disposal of used dishes with a purpose-built dish bussing robot like HolaBoT. HolaBoT can autonomously cruise seating areas, stopping at tables to allow diners to place used dishes directly into one of its four large bus tubs. When its circuit is complete, or when called back to its pre-set “home” base, the BoT will then deliver up to 120 lbs of dishes at a time directly to the sanitation area. Think of all the back strain prevented!

 

While Covid-19 is no longer the threat it once was, the world’s reckoning with it has made college administrators more aware than ever of the potential impacts of illness outbreaks on a campus community. Enhanced cleaning protocols, touchless technology, and hand sanitizer stations are all standard ways that colleges and universities continue to address health and safety on campus. But robotic technology can play a key role here too. 

 

Autonomous disinfection robots like Puductor 2 and Bubblefish can sanitize communal spaces such as classrooms, indoor gathering areas, auditoriums, etc. The Puductor 2 uses medical-grade UV-C and ultrasonic dry mist to eliminate pathogens from the air and surfaces, while the BubbleFish is a smaller robot that uses a highly efficacious dry mist disinfectant to sanitize small and large spaces. 

 

Even discounting concerns over transmissible viruses, this type of autonomous disinfection technology can be especially useful for gyms, locker rooms and other athletic facilities on a university campus. These types of environments have long been known to host a plethora of infectious microbes such as fungi and MRSA. Incorporating the routine, automated use of a disinfection robot in these settings can help keep student athletes safe and ensure a level of cleanliness that would take custodial staff much longer to complete using traditional “spray and wipe” methods.

 

University campuses are busy and bustling, with a high need for items such as supplies and documents to be transported throughout the day. One way colleges and universities can cut down on staff making unnecessary trips is by using autonomous delivery robots like SwiftBoT and KettyBoT. SwiftBoT is a large-capacity enclosed courier robot capable of carrying up to 80 lbs at a time. It can be dispatched to different locations within buildings to fetch and deliver items. 

 

KettyBoT is smaller but more interactive thanks to a large front LED screen that can be used to display videos, event information, or even advertising. In addition to light delivery, KettyBoT can also be used for visitor services, greeting and wayfinding. 

 

And then there’s TemiBoT. This AI-powered virtuoso offers the latest in robotic hosting, guiding and interactive assistance using voice and facial recognition along with flexible, AI-driven learning. The BoT can be highly integrated with campus IT systems and operations, performing several types of administrative functions. TemiBoT can guide visitors to different areas of a building, assist with visitor/volunteer check-in, and answer questions, all in one place. The interactive display screen also allows school officials to provide live, remotely guided tours to VIPs and other guests.

 

Institutions of higher education are a natural fit for labor-saving robotic solutions. With an emphasis on innovation and equipping the next generation with skills for the future, colleges and universities are already dipping their toes into robot-enabled campuses. As service robots become more commonplace in all industries, don’t be surprised to see them fully integrated into campus ecosystems very soon.

 

If you’re interested in exploring automated solutions for educational institutions, reach out today to speak to our experts!