SIRIUSc:: Fully automated facade cleaning robot for high-rise building

The Fratinhofer Institute of Factory Operation and Automation IFF has developed and constructed an automatic facade cleaning robot SIRIUSc for use on the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft's headquarters, a high-rise building in Munich, Germany. The buildings height is 80m, the facade area 4000 m(2). The kinematic principle "advanced sliding module" moves the robot quickly and efficiently along the facade and does not need guide rails mounted on the building's facade. The robot's control system and sensor systems allow flexibly using the robot without specifically programming it for a particular building. This installation constitutes the first commercial implementation of a fully automated climbing robot to clean a high-rise facade in Europe.