SoftBank Robotics Whiz

What it's for

The SoftBank Robotics Whiz is a robot for vacuuming large, repetitive routes in commercial buildings: it takes over the monotonous part of cleaning, while the human handles what the machine can't. The manufacturer claims productivity of about 500 m² per hour, and the robot learns its route by "teach and repeat": someone walks it once along the planned path, and the robot then replays it on its own, with no programming. It runs on Brain Corp's BrainOS platform Brain, also known from other commercial cleaning machines. In offices, the Whiz works well in corridors and open-plan areas after hours. In shops and shopping centers, it fits at night or before opening, when the aisles are empty, see retail. In hotels, it suits lobbies, floor corridors and conference areas, see hotels. The limits are just as concrete: it is a vacuum, not a scrubber, so for wet, greasy soiling (kitchens, dining areas) reach for a scrubbing machine such as the Gausium Scrubber 50 Pro. Three hours of battery life mean that in a large facility the cleaning plan has to be split into shifts or supplemented with a second unit. How to read such parameters is covered in “How to Read a Robot Datasheet”. For a full market overview, see “Commercial Cleaning Robots in Practice”.

Who it's for

Who it's for: managers of offices, shops and hospitality venues with large, fairly open areas of hard floors and carpet, who have repeatable routes and want to relieve the cleaning crew, especially where night-time labor is short. It also fits well into a contract with a cleaning company that rents a machine instead of adding another employee. Who it's not for: sites full of stairs, tight rooms and busy food-service zones, where you need washing, not just vacuuming. We also don't recommend it to anyone counting on official support in Poland: availability in the country is not confirmed in the sources checked, and the manufacturer does not make its full technical data sheet available. If you need on-site service and documentation in Polish, first ask the seller about support in Poland, and only then about the price.

Deployments

In the sources checked we found no official distributor or local references. Abroad, the model is sold through the RobotLAB network, which offers purchase or lease. In the category of commercial cleaning robots in Poland, competing machines are available and are described in “Commercial Cleaning Robots in Practice”; for an overview of the whole segment, see service robots.

The closest alternative is the LionsBot R3 Vac, an autonomous vacuum with 3D LiDAR from USD 13,000 (about PLN 50,390 (≈ EUR 11,530)), or USD 369 per month under RaaS; it is the machine we pair with the Whiz in our comparisons, and much cheaper to buy. When it is washing rather than vacuuming that matters, look at the Gausium Scrubber 50 Pro: USD 53,600 (about PLN 207,760 (≈ EUR 47,520)), but it is a scrubbing machine of a different class. If the site is a hotel and you care about serving guests, not just the floor, consider the Pudu BellaBot, a delivery robot at about PLN 56,205 (≈ EUR 12,860), available in Poland from several sellers. These machines don't replace each other one-to-one, but they help you judge whether the premium for the SoftBank brand is worth it.

The Whiz came out of the combination of two worlds: the Japanese company SoftBank Robotics SoftBank Robotics, known for social robots, and the American Brain Corp, which supplies the BrainOS autonomy software. We have no documented launch date or list of generations, so we won't guess. What we do know is that the same BrainOS engine powers a whole family of cleaning machines from different brands, which is why the Whiz is best seen as one incarnation of a platform, not a one-off project.