In the quest to find a business partner, the department turned to the Sumitomo Corporation, Facilities Systems Division (presently Industrial Infrastructure Business Dept.).
And while several partner candidates were identified, talks stalled. That is, until they began talking with Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.,
Visiting a Fuji factory, members of the department saw cleaning robots in action with their own eyes. In fact, the robots that Inoue saw working at Haneda were manufactured by Fuji Heavy Industries. Fuji Heavy Industries began development cleaning equipment more than 40 years ago. In the intervening time, the firm has accumulated tremendous expertise and technology in the field.,
Mr. Hajime Aoyama (professor of engineering; presently Clean Robot Department Manager), a Fuji robot project leader at the time, had the same philosophy as Inoue, and a partner was finally found.,
There were still several hurdles to overcome before the robot system would be commercially viable. The system would have to have a greater cleaning capacity than human workers, be cost-efficient and easy to manage and use.,
At this point, Yuhachi Izawa from building management firm Sumisho Building Management and Messrs. Nobuhiro Ishikawa and Toshinori Miyata from commercial cleaning company SC Building Service (SCB) were brought in to participate in the project. The elite group embraced a "succeed at all costs" attitude (Ishikawa), and proceeded in the joint development of the Cleaning Robot System.
ROBOHITER was the name selected for the cleaning robot. At 89 cm tall and 135 kg in weight, a single robot can clean 3,000 square meters in approximately four hours on a six-hour full charge—that's equivalent to the work of three humans! Operating speed is a stately 30 meters/ minute (1.8km/ hour). Even under severe working conditions with not lights or air conditioning, ROBOHITER will busily work away without a single complaint. The system is also handy in that it contributes to reducing overall building energy consumption.
