This article is part of the results of The Biggest Fleet 2024. Click here for all results

The informative value of the Biggest Fleet Ranking should still be treated with caution, but it does at least indicate trends in market penetration. We expected some results, but we also discovered some unexpected ones.

1. Infrastructure: Airports and metro stations

One segment in which cleaning robotics is particularly well represented is infrastructure, especially airports and metro stations. Robots can cover large halls, corridors, and waiting areas without interrupting operations. In some cases, airports are also seen as national or regional flagships, so political pressure may have led to a rapid adoption of cleaning robotics. As in all sectors, the COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed cleaning automation.

2. Retail: Supermarkets and retail

Cleaning robotics is rising in retail, especially in large supermarket chains such as Walmart in the USA, MAXI in Serbia, and ROSSMANN in Germany. There are many reasons for this: high customer expectations of cleanliness, the need to relieve the burden on staff, and noticeable cost savings. In many supermarkets, robots perform tasks such as vacuuming or mopping, allowing staff to focus on customer service or checkout. In addition to cleaning robots, the possibility of constant inventory by robots is of particular interest to chain stores.

3. Hotel industry: Microbots in hotels

The hotel industry has also established itself as an essential field of application for cleaning robots, especially for smaller, mobile models known as microbots. These robots are used in hotel rooms in particular. While the cleaning staff prepare the next room, the microbots do smaller tasks such as vacuuming or cleaning floors. Interestingly, it has been shown that both economy and luxury hotels are increasingly turning to this technology. This approach has already been successfully implemented in the UK, Singapore, and Germany.

4. Education sector: Universities and educational institutions

Cleaning robots are also becoming increasingly widespread in the education sector, especially in large university institutions with numerous corridors, lecture halls, and sports halls. Large cleaning robots have long been a familiar sight in universities and high schools, particularly in the USA.

5. Office market: surprisingly behind

In the office sector, cleaning robots are not as widespread as in other areas. Yet here, too, robotics could be used to significant effect. Particularly in large office buildings, where there is a high staff turnover and numerous small, sometimes complex cleaning tasks to be performed, cleaning robots offer an efficient solution. Transferring lessons learned from the healthcare and hospitality sectors may be possible.

6. Healthcare: cleaning robots in clinics and hospitals

The healthcare industry shows how versatile cleaning robots can be. Large robots are used to clean long corridors and vast areas in hospitals and clinics, while microbots are used to clean smaller and more complex rooms precisely. This mix of robots offers advantages in terms of cleaning efficiency and hygiene, as they guarantee a consistently high level of cleaning performance that is often difficult to achieve manually. In hospitals and care facilities, they help to reduce the workload of cleaning staff while increasing hygiene standards. Therefore, it is not surprising that hospital networks in the US are pioneers in cleaning robotics.

7. Logistics: large robots for large areas

Large cleaning robots are essential in the field of logistics. These robots are necessary to clean large logistics centers’ extensive warehouses and production halls. Companies such as Avidbots, which works in partnership with DHL, among others, are counting on the logistics industry as a growth market. Cleaning robots from companies such as KEMARO, PUDU, or REEMAN can also establish themselves in this industry and offer a fast and reliable solution for cleaning large areas.

8. Production: Precision and integration into production processes

The production sector poses a particular challenge for cleaning robots. The machines must be robust and integrate perfectly into existing production processes. Cleaning robots must not disrupt the production process, as any interruption can result in potentially expensive downtime. Therefore, the introduction of cleaning robots is approached with more caution here. The robots must work flexibly and reliably and, in the best case, can work with other automation systems in production through standardized protocols.