Commercial Cleaning Robots in Practice: Gausium and Pudu Robotics

Why office towers and shopping malls are turning to cleaning robots

Cleaning large commercial spaces such as shopping malls, office buildings, hotels and warehouses is repetitive, time-consuming work, and it is increasingly hard to staff at night. A commercial cleaning robot does not fully replace a person for jobs that need judgment (stains, fine detail), but it takes over the routine washing and vacuuming of big, open floors. It works at night or off-peak, without breaks and without staff turnover.

Today the segment is driven mainly by Chinese manufacturers: Pudu Robotics with its CC series and Gausium with its Scrubber and Vacuum families. The Pudu CC1 is offered in Poland by, among others, Positive Machines and the SAS24 shop; Gausium also runs a Polish-language version of its site.

Pudu CC1: the best-known model in Poland

The Pudu CC1 (Pro version) is an industrial 4-in-1 cleaning robot that combines sweeping, vacuuming, mopping and scrubbing on one platform. According to the distributor's specification it weighs 75 kg, measures 63 x 62.6 x 66.7 cm and moves at up to 1.2 m/s. The clean-water and dirty-water tanks hold 15 liters each, battery life is 4 to 9 hours depending on the mode (up to 9 hours in quiet mopping), and charging takes up to 3 hours. The claimed cleaning capacity is 720-1,000 m² per hour (Positive Machines). Thanks to SLAM navigation and automatic return to the docking station, the robot can, according to the distributor, work unattended for most of a shift.

In Poland the CC1 is available both to buy (for example RK Serwis at PLN 49,900 (≈ EUR 11,410 at NBP rate 4.3716 of 20 October 2026) net, SAS24 at PLN 88,484.20 (≈ EUR 20,240) on the day we checked; Positive Machines gives the price on request) and to rent, from PLN 1,990 (≈ EUR 455) net per month. Renting is especially popular with cleaning companies and facility managers who want to test automation without tying up capital.

Gausium Scrubber 50 and Vacuum 40: specialized by floor type

The Gausium Scrubber 50 is an autonomous scrubbing robot that combines scrubbing, sweeping and dry mopping in one machine. According to the manufacturer's data sheet it weighs 148-157 kg (depending on whether the roller or disc brush is fitted), has a scrubbing width of 406-460 mm, and carries a 30 L clean-water tank and a 24 L dirty-water tank. Its 60 Ah lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery charges in 2 hours and gives 3 hours of scrubbing or up to 8 hours of dry dust mopping. Theoretical scrubbing capacity is 1,754-1,987 m² per hour and practical capacity 500-1,300 m² per hour (Gausium specification). The manufacturer also claims a filtration system that recycles and reuses water, cutting fresh-water consumption by about 80% (Gausium). That matters for sites billed by utility usage.

The Gausium Vacuum 40 Diffuser is a robot the manufacturer recommends for hotels with narrow corridors and carpet tiles, among other uses. It combines vacuuming, sweeping and dry mopping, has three carpet-cleaning modes (light, medium, deep), and an optional diffuser kit is used for air purification, humidification or aroma diffusion (Gausium).

What deployment looks like in practice

Before its first run, the robot must go through a site-mapping stage. An operator guides it, manually or remotely, across the whole area, building the SLAM map from which the robot later plans its own cleaning routes. After that, the robot works autonomously. It detects obstacles (people, carts, furniture moved relative to the map), goes around them and rejoins its route, and when the battery or tanks run out it returns to the docking station on its own.

A monitoring mobile app (offered by both Pudu and Gausium) lets you check cleaning progress, route history and battery level remotely, which helps facility managers keep control of a fleet without being physically next to the robot.

What it costs in practice, and when it pays off

At a rental rate from PLN 1,990 (≈ EUR 455) net per month and a claimed capacity of 700-1,000 m² per hour, a commercial cleaning robot pays off mainly at sites with large, open floor areas: halls, mall corridors, office lobbies, where one manual shift would take several hours. In rooms with a complicated layout, many small obstacles or frequently rearranged furniture, the advantage of automation shrinks, because the robot spends more time getting around obstacles than actually cleaning.

Buying makes sense for steady, multi-year demand on the same floor area. Renting suits testing the solution, seasonal peaks (for example shopping centers before the holidays), or companies that manage several sites and want to move a fleet flexibly between locations. For mobile robots used beyond cleaning, in internal transport and logistics, see our article on “AMR Robots in the Warehouse”.