China is highlighting its innovative smart cleaning robots as the sanitation industry has entered a new phase of large-scale rollout, signaling a major shift toward automation in urban cleaning and maintenance efforts.
The country's sanitation industry is undergoing a significant transformation this year, with unmanned sanitation robots being deployed on a large scale in Shenzhen City of south China's Guangdong Province, empowered by advancements in automation and AI-driven manufacturing.
Outside the Shenzhen Universiade Center Stadium, unmanned cleaning robots have been deployed for cleaning operations in the plaza. These robots can automatically clean and dispose trash along pre-set routes.
"Now, these unmanned robotic devices can be managed in the cloud. The system allows us to monitor the entire operational scenarios, such as the location of the device, whether it has completed its tasks in a specific area, and if there is trash under a particular tree," said Lin Songyuan, general manager of the Urban Steward Project in Shenzhen City's Longcheng Street.
The application scenarios for unmanned cleaning robots are continuously expanding. In Shenzhen Litchi Park, an unmanned boat-shaped cleaning robot glides across the artificial lake, diligently clearing away fallen leaves and floating debris wherever it goes. When encountering water lilies along the shore, it can automatically recognize and skillfully navigate around them.
The central lake in the Litchi Park covers an area of nearly 50,000 square meters and has a perimeter of about 1.2 kilometers. Previously, workers had to take boats to clear debris, with three workers taking around two hours for each task. Since the introduction of the unmanned cleaning boat, efficiency has significantly improved.
"Since we introduced the unmanned cleaning boat, it takes about 40 minutes to complete a round of cleanup. The unmanned boat can also reach areas that are inaccessible to manual cleaning," said Wang Miaoqiang, a staff member of the Lychee Park.
Along with the increased application scenarios of unmanned sanitation robot, manufacturing companies in the sector are experiencing a significant surge in production orders. The manager of a sanitation equipment manufacturing company in Guangdong's Foshan City said that orders for unmanned sanitation robots have climbed dramatically since the beginning of this year. As a result, they have had to arrange employees from other production lines to work overtime so as to ensure timely order fulfillment. "All the vehicles in our display area are already reserved. Currently, production is in full swing, with overtime work taking place every weekend," said You Lei, supply chain manager of a sanitation robot manufacturing company in Foshan.
At another unmanned sanitation robot company in Shenzhen, the continuous rise in market demand has led to a significant increase in production orders this year.
"As of now, our unmanned sanitation equipment has served over 200 sanitation projects nationwide, with current orders exceeding 35 million yuan (about 4.92 million U.S. dollars), representing a year-on-year sales growth of over 100 percent," said Yang Bo, CEO of an intelligent robot company in Shenzhen.
China showcases smart cleaning robots as industry enters large-scale roll-out phase
