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Window Washing a Skyscraper Is Beyond a Robot's Reach
HughPickens.com writes "Patrick McGeehan writes in the NYT that the image of a pair of window washers clinging to a scaffold dangling outside the 68th floor of 1 World Trade Center have left many wondering why robots can't rub soapy water on glass and wipe it off with a squeegee relieving humans of the risk of injury, or death, from a plunge to the sidewalk? The simple answer, several experts say, is that washing windows is something that machines still cannot do as well as people can. "Building are starting to look like huge sculptures in the sky," says Craig Caulkins. "A robot can't maneuver to get around those curves to get into the facets of the building." According to Caulkins robotic cleaning systems tend to leave dirt in the corners of the glass walls that are designed to provide panoramic views from high floors. "If you are a fastidious owner wanting clean, clean windows so you can take advantage of that very expensive view that you bought, the last thing you want to see is that gray area around the rim of the window."
Another reason for the sparse use of robots is that buildings require a lot more maintenance than just window cleaning. Equipment is needed to lower people to repair facades and broken windows, like the one that rescue workers had to cut through with diamond cutters to rescue the window washers. For many years, being a window cleaner in Manhattan was regarded as one of the most dangerous occupations in the world: by 1932, an average of one in every two hundred window cleaners in New York was killed each year. Now all new union window cleaners now take two hundred and sixteen hours of classroom instruction, three thousand hours of accredited time with an employer and their union makes sure workers follow rigorous safety protocols. In all, there are about 700 scaffolds for window washing on buildings in New York City, says union representative Gerard McEneaney. His members are willing to do the work because it pays well: as much $26.89 an hour plus benefits. Many of the window cleaners are immigrants from South America. "They're fearless guys, fearless workers."
Another reason for the sparse use of robots is that buildings require a lot more maintenance than just window cleaning. Equipment is needed to lower people to repair facades and broken windows, like the one that rescue workers had to cut through with diamond cutters to rescue the window washers. For many years, being a window cleaner in Manhattan was regarded as one of the most dangerous occupations in the world: by 1932, an average of one in every two hundred window cleaners in New York was killed each year. Now all new union window cleaners now take two hundred and sixteen hours of classroom instruction, three thousand hours of accredited time with an employer and their union makes sure workers follow rigorous safety protocols. In all, there are about 700 scaffolds for window washing on buildings in New York City, says union representative Gerard McEneaney. His members are willing to do the work because it pays well: as much $26.89 an hour plus benefits. Many of the window cleaners are immigrants from South America. "They're fearless guys, fearless workers."
Pilkington's "Activ" glass will self-clean in the rain. Though with credit to your comment, they recommend hosing it during prolonged dry spells.
https://lakepointtower.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/doing-the-windows-at-lake-point-tower/#more-461
Here is a terribly done youtube video that purports to show the machine and process (but...well...let's just say he isn't a very good cameraman). Of course, it is a design that is fully integrated with the building. I worked in the building for a while and I always found the windows to be quite clean. Better than other buildings because they could clean the windows more often. You need tracks running down the edges of all of the winows, so you couldn't retrofit this onto an old building...but this problem does seem solvable for new constructions.
Significantly more complicated for old buildings. I am in a ~100 year old brick and stone facade building. The windows are inset, and not uniform in size, They have window sills and some of them are divided into multiple panes while other areas have bigger sheets of glass. I don't know how a machine would manage this...and having a custom machine might make sense for a large condo building (pretty sure the lake point tower cleaner robots are running most of the time since they have 70 stories of wall-to-wall windows to clean), but a custom machine for a shorter office building with limited windows is not going to be more effective than having a couple guys scrub the windows every few weeks.
Here, the guys that clean the windows actually rappel down. I think a lot of older buildings have too much stuff sticking out (and the windows are more spaced out), so having a hanging scaffold doesn't make sense. Instead, they just harness in and kick themselves around the building, using a suction cup to hold themselves in place while they clean a window. Incredibly fast and even considering they get paid pretty well, incredibly cheap.
Bottles.