BSCs Can Connect Scrubber Fleet to ‘Hetero’ Data

SAN FRANCISCO -- SoftBank Robotics America, has launched an online platform that provides a streamlined, automated approach to managing heterogeneous fleets of autonomous solutions, enabling operational transparency and increased productivity.

"Our customers are already starting their automation journeys and expanding their robotic portfolios,” said Brady Watkins, SoftBank Robotics America President and GM. “SoftBank Robotics Connect represents a strategic investment that allows our customers to sustain long term business value, by providing the foundation for success with integrated autonomous data, which complements our services in onboarding, adoption, and change management."

SoftBank Robotics Connect provides users and managers with actionable data analytics-based insights that help drive targeted improvements in productivity, service uptime, quality, and standard operating procedure (SOP) consistency. This allows teams to maximize the utilization of the robot fleets.

"The platform gives team members access to track the productivity of a robotic fleet, from hundreds of robots, down to a single robot, anywhere in the world," said Kate Kidd, VP pf Products, SoftBank Robotics America. “This data can be used to increase fleet efficiency by recognizing trends and proactively resolving problems, or to showcase the overall productivity and value of a robotics program.”

Users can manage the routes, and locations, and receive insights on the productivity of their robotic fleets through the platform in near time. These insights allow customers to continuously improve robot performance and the overall productivity of the operation. SoftBank Robotics Connect's combination of data analytics, machine learning, and an intuitive user experience supports users in better managing their service operations and achieving the business case for automation.

Enterprise customers such as Flagship Facility Services and University of Delaware (UD) view SoftBank Robotics Connect as vital in the optimization of their investment in autonomous robots for commercial cleaning. Flagship Facility Services deployed over 100 autonomous robots across customer locations in just six months. "SoftBank Robotics Connect is a strategic platform that enables us to manage performance of the program across all of our locations and deliver sustainable business value," said Jeffrey Williams, Director of Aviation and Janitorial Operations.

UD has a mix of Whiz and S50 for vacuuming and scrubbing respectively. With a single dashboard, UD can monitor performance for multiple robots, understand the work plan for each one, and more importantly have proof that work has been completed. Should the robot have an issue, a simple text message sent to the operations team enables the team to respond and resolve it.

Sylvester Johnson, Jr., Director of Custodial & University Services at University of Delaware, said, "We want to provide the best level of service to our faculty, staff, students, and visitors. With SoftBank Robotics Connect, we are able to deploy the most appropriate robots for the task at hand, measure the impact of the program, and meet or exceed our cleaning SOPs."

For more on SoftBank Robotics America, go to softbankrobotics.com.