Brain Corp. today said that Denver Public Schools has chosen robotic scrubbers made by Tennant Co. and using its BrainOS autonomy software to clean schools across one of the largest school districts in the U.S.
Denver Public Schools decided to invest in a large fleet of self-driving floor cleaners to free its facility management staffers so they can work on other higher-value tasks, such as cleaning between classes and in-depth sanitizing. The machines will be deployed this summer at various high schools in the district, which includes more than 200 schools and serves 90,000 students.
“These new autonomous floor cleaners are a critical technology investment that will help us enhance cleanliness at 14 of our largest buildings, mainly our 10 comprehensive high schools. This is a huge benefit to our students, while maintaining future operating costs,” stated Rich Archuletta, director of facility operations at Denver Public Schools. “At the same time, this program will help us close a staffing gap most all urban school districts face, which is limited funding to meet constantly expanding facility needs.”
Denver Public Schools evaluated several systems
Denver Public Schools selected the T380AMR after evaluating several autonomous solutions, according to Brain Corp. It ultimately made its decision based on the quality and serviceability of the Tennant cleaning equipment, as well as the safety, privacy and data features of the cloud-connected BrainOS, said the company.
District officials were reportedly also impressed with the ease of use of the machines, which leverage a proprietary “teach and repeat” methodology that makes it easy for non-technical employees to deploy and adjust cleaning routes on the fly.
“In the wake of the pandemic, nothing is more important than maintaining enhanced cleaning standards to keep students and staff healthy and safe,” said Alan Butcher, vice president of global client services at Brain Corp. “BrainOS-powered scrubbers enable facility leaders to quickly deploy powerful cleaning solutions that have the added benefit of providing detailed ‘proof or work’ metrics, which can be used to verify and optimize performance.”
“A clean learning environment helps students and staff to succeed and grow,” said Ken Boris, commercial market manager at Tennant. “We are excited to see more and more school districts like Denver Public Schools adopt robotic scrubbers to create cleaner and safer environments, while also reducing operating costs and expanding the bandwidth of their valuable employees.”
BrainOS powers numerous robots
Founded in 2009, Brain Corp claimed that its software “powers the world’s largest fleet of autonomous mobile robots operating in commercial indoor public spaces.” Global manufacturing partners use BrainOS and its cloud-connected artificial intelligence to build, deploy, and support commercial robots at scale across industries and applications, said the San Diego-based company.
Through intuitive software and controls, BrainOS also enables customers to use robots to relieve employees of repetitive, labor-intensive tasks related to floor care, in-store inventory delivery, and shelf-scanning.
Working with OEM partners like Tennant, Brain Corp offers BrainOS through software-as-a-service (SaaS) or robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) model. It currently powers nearly 16,000 autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in schools, retail stores, malls, hospitals, and other high-traffic locations worldwide. Last year, the company said it generated 3.3 million hours of additional productivity for end customers.