Emirates tests autonomous robots that clean cabin seats

Emirates is testing a robot to potentially clean aircraft seats, a move that could allow workers to focus their attention and resources on other tasks. The Dubai airline is working with Hivebotics, which manufactures autonomous bathroom cleaning robots, to develop aircraft-cleaning robots. Hivebotics harnesses hardware and software intelligence, and specialises in automating high-risk and specialised tasks. “Our initial product was actually an autonomous toilet-cleaning robot,” said Rishab Patwari, Hivebotics' CE and co-founder. “The airline reached out to us and said 'look, can you repurpose a toilet-cleaning robot for something we can use for our airline cleaning?'” The company's robot was displayed on the sidelines of ForsaTEK, Emirates Group's annual showcase of technology shaping aviation's future. Rishab said the robot was currently being tested as a prototype, and said that it would make cleaners' jobs more efficient, rather than obsolete. “We want humans to focus on the most significant tasks and robots to handle the most repetitive tasks,” he said. “So, the robot should do 80% of the baseline cleaning, but humans inspect.”<br/>