One of PortMiami's cruise terminal floors has been cleaned by a robot for the past year through a pilot program with Miami-based WorkWise Robotics.
The robot can vacuum, scrub and mop up to 10,000 square feet per hour and operate up to 18 hours per day, says Erol Alpsalan, WorkWise's director of partnerships. According to the company's website, it costs about 30 cents an hour to operate it.
WorkWise provides robots to cruise liners, airports, hotels and other hospitality businesses. They do more than clean. Robots are used to bus tables and deliver room service, Alpsalan says.
PortMiami has 10 cruise terminals, eight of which are operated by Miami-Dade County. For the pilot program, the port used Terminal F, a 471,000-sq.-ft. structure where it takes about four hours to clean the floors manually. The WorkWise robots are sent in before and after passengers fill the terminal, says PortMiami Head of Innovation Gustavo Grande.
Most port workers are part of the International Longshoremen's Association union, and the project was designed not to eliminate any jobs, Grande says, but to complement them. Some workers were trained to program and operate the robots, earning credentials for being upskilled. Turnover is down.
The port is looking for more robotic and artificial intelligence programs that can improve workflow and efficiency, Grande says. For example, it's looking into building management systems that can pause escalators or dim the lights to reduce energy use when no people are detected in the vicinity.