Israeli firm Verobotics pushes use of AI

“By the end of next year, we expect to have more than 50 robots deployed, and by 2025 we will at least double that number”, Genosar told the South China Morning Post in an interview on Wednesday. He said the firm already plans to open a Hong Kong office by the end of this year.

“As we all know, Hong Kong is world-famous for having a concrete jungle full of high-rise buildings,” Lee said in his speech at the event. “So the business potential for this very innovative robotics project from Israel sounds pretty promising to us all!”

“Due to the density of buildings that could benefit from our solution in Hong Kong, it makes sense for us to invest here, and the goal is to grow in the city and use it as a door, or in our case, a window to Asia”, Verobotics’ Genosar said.

“I couldn’t understand why the methods [in the industry] hadn’t changed in 100 years,” Genosar said. He asserted that the system of using BMUs was too labour- and time-intensive for building operators and dangerous for workers.

Teaming up with company co-founder and chief technology officer Itay Levitan, Verobonics replaced the BMU with an autonomous system that consists of a roof unit, a climbing robot and a cleaning device, according to Genosar. Their system can purportedly be deployed on a site in less than an hour, with up to six robots cleaning a building’s facade at a time.

While there are other existing window-cleaning robot solutions, few of these have replaced the BMU entirely, Genosar said.

The cleaning apparatus is rappelled from under Verobotics’ AI-powered robot using a dry brush, rather than traditional liquids and chemicals used for such work. While scaling the side of a building, the robot uses on-board cameras to scan the surface and create a 3D model which can be used to identify structural issues or pinpoint areas of heat or cooling loss, according to Genosar.

Sino Group has already tested Verobotics’ robots on four of its buildings and it will be the first Hong Kong property developer to commercially deploy the company’s robots in the city, according to Genosar.

While the current model of Verobotics’ cleaning robot is fit for use on certain buildings with glass-and-aluminium facades, Genosar said the company and its local partner have identified hundreds of buildings which could use their solution. He indicated that the firm plans to create new devices for other types of buildings.

Verobotics and partner Robocore expect to first pass safety clearance and obtain permits from several Hong Kong authorities before they can launch their AI-powered robot cleaners locally. Genosar said his company, which has received the necessary permit to operate in Israel, is confident that the robot’s built-in safety precautions will prove less hazardous than alternative building cleaning methods.