Robot introduction to cleaning work in the East Japan Railway Company

摘要

Cleaning of rolling stock and stations is very important work in supplying comfortable service to customers. However, there are some problems with cleaning work, e.g. lack of workers who are getting older. To improve these problems, the East Japan Railway has developed several kinds of robots for cleaning. Here, I explain four types of floor cleaning robots. The first is a dust-collecting robot (the sweeper-type robot) for corners of station floors, the second is a cleaning robot (the scrubber-type robot) for use throughout a station and the third is a floor cleaning robot for commuter rail cars, all of which are self-propelled. The last one is a bonnet cleaning robot for Shinkansen rolling stock which has special axis mechanisms and a running mechanism.