Smart Floor Cleaning

Robotic floor cleaners help retailers free up staff for other tasks

By Marianne Wilson

The use of autonomous floor cleaning robots is starting to grow as retailers deal with persistent staffing shortages and an increased focus on store cleanliness. As facility managers do more with less, floor cleaning bots are beginning to make inroads in the retail industry — and not just in grocery stores.

Convenience store chain Kum & Go plans to deploy autonomous floor scrubbers across all of its more than 400 locations starting this year.

The Iowa-based, family-owned retailer is partnering with floor cleaning equipment and technology company ICE Cobotics to utilize the firm’s Cobi 18 automated floor cleaning device. The robots , which can clean 5,000 to 7,000 square feet per hour, can be deployed multiple times per day to clean floors.

The Cobi 18 robots are designed for small spaces and for navigating tight aisles and moving around stationary objects. By leveraging autonomous Cobi 18 technology, Kum & Go said it will free up employees from repetitive work and allow them to focus on keeping shelves and coolers fully stocked, provide fresh food offerings and increase engagement with in-store customers.

The ICE floor cleaning robots are available via a three-year subscription service that the company says allows users to to avoid the burden of ownership. According to its website, the subscription price includes equipment, customer support, repairs, replacement parts, software, training and shipping.

“Kum & Go’s continuous improvement culture drives us to find equipment and process improvements that make it easier for our store associates to execute,” said Marty Roush, VP of operations at Kum & Go. “The choice was easy given the full support model ICE Cobotics provides.”

“Our associates and customers think Cobi is fun, which means it gets used more than any scrubber we have utilized in our stores to date,” added Roush.

Kum & Go is the second U.S. convenience store retailer to work with ICE Cobotics. In October, Phillips 66 deployed the company’s autonomous floor scrubbing robot in its more than 7,000 Phillips 66, Conoco, 76, and Phillips 66 Aviation locations.

Bots Get Smarter

Meanwhile, Sam’s Club has added more capabilities to its fleet of Tennant Co. autonomous floor scrubbers. The warehouse club division of Walmart has completed a chainwide rollout of inventory scan towers that have been added to its existing fleet of robotic scrubbers in partnership with Brain Corp.

The new scanning accessory has been fitted to the approximately 600 autonomous floor scrubbers already deployed within Sam’s Club locations nationwide. Powered by Brain Corp’s AI operating system, BrainOS, the cloud-connected inventory scan tower captures data as it moves autonomously around the club.

The tower can capture and report realtime data such as product localization, planogram compliance, product stock levels, and verification of pricing accuracy, eliminating the need for manual processes and improving accuracy and efficiency.

“Our initial goal at Sam’s Club was to convert time historically spent on scrubbers to more member-focused activities,” said Todd Garner, VP In-Club product management. “Our autonomous scrubbers have exceeded this goal. In addition to increasing the consistency and

Solutions for buildings. Designed for people.

frequency of floor cleaning, intelligent scrubbers have empowered associates with critical insights.”

The rollout is the first commercial application of Brain Corp.s’ new inventoryscanning technology, Sam’s Club parent Walmart been using BrainOS-powered Tennant automated scrubbers in at least 1,800 stores across the U.S. since 2019.

All of our architectural products serve a distinct, functional purpose–from louvers to wall coverings to every detail we perfect–like our entrance mats and grids in the JPMorgan Chase Tower lobby. At the same time, we never lose sight of the effect a building has on people. The inspiration it provides. The satisfaction it brings. For 70 years, we’ve based our success on the idea that putting people first is the foundation for building better buildings. And, for 70 years, our partners have depended on us for architectural product solutions. Are you ready to think beyond the building with us?

Visit c-sgroup.com.