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Left, the X1 serving and bussing robot, and right, the Scrubber 50 Pro robotic floor cleaning robot. | Source: SoftBank Robotics America
SoftBank Robotics America (SBRA), the North American arm of SoftBank, and Gausium, a provider of autonomous cleaning and service robots, announced a new partnership to deploy indoor automated robots in the US.
SBRA and Gausium will work to help companies adopt, integrate and scale robotic solutions within their organizations. The partnership will focus on two solutions: X1, a running and bussing solution for the food service industry, and Scrubber 50 Pro (S50), a robotic floor scrubber powered by artificial intelligence.
“SBRA is the right partner to bring our products to market throughout the U.S.,” said Allen Zhang, Chief of Overseas Business of Gausium. “Their holistic customer support continues after the point of sale and ensures all adopters are receiving the expected return on experience and investment when utilizing our robots.”
X1 has three serving trays with a collective payload of 30 kg. The robot is able to run food and drinks between several tables at a time and chart its most efficient path to tables and back to the kitchen while avoiding customers, employees, furniture and other robots.
The companies have already deployed the first fleet of X1 robots to Orlando in The Hall On The Yard, a 12,250-square-foot full-service food hall with nine restaurants.
“Gausium’s technology is at the forefront of commercial service robots. Their products are smart, safe, and simple, enabling customers to easily adopt them into their businesses,” Brady Watkins, President of SoftBank Robotics America, said. “To truly solve the labor shortage many industries are facing, we are helping companies go beyond adoption and focus on the integration and scaling of their technology to maximize the value our solutions offer.”
The S50 will expand SBRA’s portfolio of cleaning robots after its deployment of Whiz, a collaborative robot vacuum. S50 is a 4-in-1 scrubbing, sweeping, dust mopping and sanitizing solution. The robot can clean and disinfect floors simultaneously and automatically cleans spots by detecting and removing strains before they spread. For spills that are too big for the robot to handle on its own, the robot will send a message to an operator to request additional support.
SoftBank Robotics has offices in Tokyo, San Francisco, Boston, London, Paris, Hamberg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and aims to become a worldwide leader in robotics solutions. In June, SBRA announced it appointed Brady Watkins as president of the company. Watkins previously served as the company’s senior vice president and general manager.
