Described by CEO Michael Levy as looking like a “minifridge with a robot arm attached to the front,” the robot was designed for use in places like airports and office buildings. Nothing is ever moved in the bathrooms in such places, meaning that the robot only needs to be trained one time and then it can clean the restroom all on its own.
To train the robot, the company creates a virtual reality simulation of the restroom in which it shows the robot what to do. The Somatic team jokingly describes this process as “the worst video game, ever.” Then the robot uses sensors like lidar to make its way around the actual bathroom while following the instructions of the VR model.
