marchapril2021 - 16

MAINTENANCE
airport has employed but getting up to
speed with the new tool was easy.
" I hadn't had any experience with
autonomous cleaning technology. I was
going in with zero knowledge, " Edson
recounted. " The folks at Tennant came
to the airport the day after the unit was
delivered. They did about six hours of
training, teaching us everything from
how to set it up with the brushes, the
different types of brushes that can go
underneath it, how to fill it, how to empty
it, how to set up the routes. And then we
went through, and you have to teach it
the route, and then save it. And that's it.
And then after you do that, all you do is
put it at the home station, and let it go. "
BRO uses the T7AMR all hours of
the day. Contrary to what people may
think, it does not only function well
during slow hours said Edson. In fact,
it's a crowd pleaser.
" I use it during the busy hours
because I have that much confidence it'll
go around people. It'll stop. It'll send you
messages if it's blocked. It's an amazing
machine. It's very technologically
advanced. It still impresses me when I
use it today. And even better, it's an eye
catcher. The people are like, 'I've never
seen that before.' So they like to see it out.
And you'll see some of them step in front
of it just to see if it'll go around them or
something. It's very neat, " Edson said.
Strohsack said that it's one of the
added layers to autonomous solution
that might not be apparent at first, but
in pandemic-era where passengers want
to see cleaning done, having the robots
out in front doing their cleaning is a
business boon.
" It really strengthens our customers',
like the airport, brand showing that
there's active cleaning. We hear from end
customers, whether they're travelers in an
airport situation or retail environment,
or even warehousing logistics, the
employees, the customers, seeing
technology being implemented gives
them comfort. It enhances the brand
image because while that customer, that
employee sees the airports or the retailer
investing in technology for cleaning, it's
such a brand enhancement, " he said.

Ahead of the Curve
The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky
International Airport (CVG) started

THE MICROBES ON OUR SIDE
Technology with autonomy isn't the only weapon
available to airports - there's also biology. Brownsville
South Padre Island International Airport (BRO) is using
good germs to fight the bad ones. Utilizing a Victory
Innovations backpack sprayer, the airport has been
spraying down surfaces with a probiotic mixture since the
COVID-19 pandemic's start.
" We use a chemical by Z Bioscience. It's a probiotic. And
that puts good bacteria on surfaces to help prevent where
we're touching. Because while we try to clean, there's
so many passengers traveling through the airport, you
can't clean 100% of the time. So this helps up to seven
days on areas that we might miss, or don't get to every
day, " explained Thomas Edson, airport operations and
maintenance manager, BRO.
Victory Innovations offers two different sprayers. The
handheld model is a lightweight sprayer that's designed
for quick disinfecting tasks and smaller spaces such as
offices or restrooms. The backpack model has a capacity
of 2.25 gallons, ideal for spraying larger areas like
passenger waiting areas, baggage claims or food courts.
" With a Victory sprayer, an area can be sprayed down
within minutes and reopen to passengers once the
chemical has reached its dwell time - depending on
the chemical manufacturer, this can be as little as five
minutes. Users aren't limited to any specific family of
chemicals; Victory Innovations sprayers can be used with
any water-based chemical, " said Chris Gurreri, Victory
Innovations' CEO and co-founder.
Gurreri added that many airports use a combination of
the handheld and backpack to address their cleaning

using an autonomous f loor cleaner in
2019. The unit is specifically designed for
a variety of flooring including terrazzo
and deployed throughout the operational
day to be as visible as possible.
Called Neo, the fully autonomous
floor scrubber is a creation of Avidbots.
Faizan Sheikh, CEO and co-Founder of
Avidbots, said the company has deployed
hundreds of robots around the world and
in the Fall of 2020, the company released
its second generation of Neo, Neo 2.
" It comes with two different types
of cleaning head options, cylindrical
brushes, as well as disc brushes. It has two
separate tanks, one for clean water, one
for dirty water. So we do not do any kind
of filtration. And you know, especially
now I think everybody's very cognizant
of biological hazards and filtration doesn't
do anything for that, " Sheikh described.
The Neo's AI works similar to what a
human would do, added Sheikh - trying
to cover the maximum area in the least
amount of time.
" If you take the example of an airport,
you have an airport which from the
perspective of the robot, there's a lot of

16 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / MARCH/APRIL 2021

needs. Both sprayers use the same electrostatic
technology, have the patented 3-in-1 nozzle and are
battery operated.
" Victory Innovations electrostatic sprayers enable an
operator to disinfect an area up to 70 percent faster
compared to a conventional spray and wipe method.
Airports are full of touch points that can harbor viruses
and bacteria such as COVID-19, Rhinovirus, Influenza,
Norovirus and others in open areas, including passenger
waiting areas, food courts, security checks and baggage
claims, " continued Gurreri.
Edson said first they disinfect an aera with the sprayers,
then switch over to lay down the probiotic.
" When we disinfect, we put down 80 microns as the
setting. When we do the probiotics, it's 40 microns. And
you just spray it on and let it dry. And that's it. It's very
good. We've been using it the whole time we've been in
this terminal, and we even used it at the end of our last
terminal, " said Edson.
Victory Innovations sprayers can spray any solution that
is water based, but users should reach out to the chemical
manufacturer to confirm that a chemical is approved
to be sprayed through an electrostatic sprayer - and he
noted that the EPA has not approved probiotic solutions
specifically as method of disinfecting for COVID-19.
" I love it. We use it on our buses. We use it in our seating
areas, " Edson said. " At any touch points where people are
going through. Everyone's goal is the same at an airport,
to keep the public safe, to allow them to make it from
point A to point B in the safest way possible. "

change going on. There's people, there's
baggage trolleys. The next time those
people might not be there. The baggage
trolleys might not be there. The bags
might not be there. It's a place that is
alive if you will. Nothing is truly constant
in airports except the walls. And even
then, they might change to if there's
renovation or construction work going
on. So, what all that means is when you
pick an autonomous cleaning solution,
it really needs to be able to adapt to all
the changes seamlessly without involving
your staff, " said Sheikh.
As such, Neo isn't taught a path that
it's going to repeat. Instead, operators
show the robot where the walls of the
building are, what the layout of the
airport is and within 24-hours Avidbots
creates a cleaning plan for Neo and
sends it to the robot. Then the day after,
Avidbots trains the airport with the robot
and hands it over.
" The way it works is an operator just
selects the cleaning plan for the airport,
the terminal, the area that they want to
clean and presses play. And then they walk
away. There's nothing more needed from
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