whirrwork
🌐 ترجمة آلية. النص الإنجليزي هو المصدر وقد يكون أدق. اقرأ بالإنجليزية →

روبوت أم إنسان؟

Window and facade cleaning

Rope-access or lift crew (contract) vs Cleaning-drone service

تقديرات من نموذج Whirrwork، وليست حقائق. المنهجية · سجل التوقعات

إنسان · سنويًا‏١٥٠٬٠٠٠ US$Rope or lift contractor
روبوت · سنويًا‏٥٤٬٠٠٠ US$Drone cleaning service
فترة الاستردادimmediate
سنة التقاطعالآنBase-case year (earliest to latest across scenarios)

On these numbers the robot option is clearly cheaper.

الولايات المتحدة · USD · BLS OEWS May 2025 national medians by SOC occupation

احسب بأرقامك

Change anything. Results update as you type and stay in your browser; nothing is stored or sent. Works offline after your first visit.

حجم العمل
افتراض

Facade square feet cleaned per year (e.g. 60,000 sq ft twice).

افتراض

Working hours per day.

افتراض

Working days per month.

افتراض

Months per year (volume is annual).

العمالة
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

BLS OEWS May 2025 national median hourly wage, SOC 37-2019.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Wages and salaries were 70.0% of total employer compensation cost for private industry workers in June 2026 (ECEC), so total cost = wage / 0.70.

ilostat.ilo.org

Nominal 4.4% a year, 2015-2025 (ILOSTAT hourly earnings).

الأسعار
مشتق Sky PSI (drone cleaning company)

Low-to-mid point of conventional lift/rope bids $0.50-$3.50/sq ft. Source is a drone cleaning company, so treat as their view of the competition.

مشتق Vista Drone Cleaning

Upper end of commercial drone-cleaning published rates ($0.12-$0.25 Miami; $0.25-$0.50 Southern California).

الروبوت
افتراض

Facade sq ft per drone-hour including setup and moves.

مشتق Lucid Bots

Midpoint of Lucid Bots Sherpa operator subscription $2,950-$4,600/month.

افتراض

Pilot certification, insurance and gear to run your own drone.

افتراض

Subscription commitment in years.

افتراض

Share of working hours flyable (wind, rain, battery swaps).

افتراض

Work lost to faults.

افتراض

Share still done by rope or lift (recessed windows, detail work, inspection).

افتراض

Crew minutes per drone-hour: pilot plus a ground person for the hose and the public.

افتراض

kWh per drone-hour.

افتراض

Electricity price per kWh (USD). Check your bill; energy is rarely a big line.

التمويل
افتراض

Annual financing / discount rate. Nobody publishes yours; 8% is a round mid-2026 commercial borrowing guess.

افتراض

Years in the NPV comparison.

افتراض

Share of a human service price that is labour (rises with wages). Used to escalate and to adjust US service prices to other countries.

افتراض

Share of a robot service price that is labour (pilot, technician). The rest is equipment, which learning curves make cheaper.

افتراض

Share of a lease or RaaS fee that pays for hardware (learns down). The rest is service and support (moves with wages).

Download these results (CSV)

النتائج

الخيارشهريًاسنويًاPer unit (sq ft)التكلفة الأوليةفترة الاستردادBreak-even utilisation5-year NPV vs baseline
إنسان Rope or lift contractor خط الأساس ‏١٢٬٥٠٠ US$‏١٥٠٬٠٠٠ US$‏١٫٢٥ US$— — — —
روبوت Drone cleaning service ‏٤٬٥٠٠ US$‏٥٤٬٠٠٠ US$‏٠٫٤٥ US$— immediate — ‏٤١٦٬٠١٢ US$
روبوت Run your own cleaning drone (subscription) ‏٦٬٩٦١ US$‏٨٣٬٥٣٢ US$‏٠٫٦٩٦ US$‏٥٬٠٠٠ US$ 0.9 أشهر ٢٪؜
Utilisation ٦٪؜
 ‏٢٩٩٬٠٨٩ US$

What moves the answer most

Each bar shows the 5-year NPV of the best robot option when one input moves to the low or high end of its range, with the rest held at your values.

5-year NPV vs baseline: Drone cleaning service5-year NPV vs baseline: Drone cleaning serviceWorkloadlow value: 30000 → ‏١٠٤٬٠٠٣ US$high value: 500000 → ‏١٬٧٣٣٬٣٨٢ US$Rope or lift contractorlow value: 0.5 → ‏١٠٥٬٢٤١ US$high value: 3.5 → ‏١٬٣٤٨٬٣٢٣ US$Work that stays humanlow value: 0.05 → ‏٤٩٤٬٠١٤ US$high value: 0.4 → ‏٣١٢٬٠٠٩ US$Drone cleaning servicelow value: 0.12 → ‏٤٦٩٬٠٢٠ US$high value: 0.5 → ‏٣١٤٬٠٧٣ US$Financing and discount ratelow value: 0.05 → ‏٤٤٧٬٧٤٧ US$high value: 0.12 → ‏٣٧٨٬٣٥٦ US$Wage growth per yearlow value: 0.0236 → ‏٤٠٥٬٩٤٥ US$high value: 0.0636 → ‏٤٢٦٬٤٦٤ US$‏٤١٦٬٠١٢ US$low valuehigh valueSource: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/window-facade-cleaning/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.

Cost per unit to 2035

Real terms (today's money). Robot hardware follows Wright's law; wages follow each country's history. Shaded band: robots-slow to robots-fast scenarios. تقديرات من نموذج Whirrwork، وليست حقائق.

Chartتكلفة الإنسان لكل وحدة (الأساسي), تكلفة الروبوت لكل وحدة (الأساسي), تكلفة الروبوت لكل وحدة (الروبوتات: تقدّم سريع), تكلفة الروبوت لكل وحدة (الروبوتات: تقدّم بطيء). Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/window-facade-cleaning/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.‏٠٫٠٠ US$‏٠٫٥٠ US$‏١٫٠٠ US$2026202720282029203020312032203320342035USD / sq ftscenario rangeتكلفة الإنسان لكل وحدة (الأساسي)تكلفة الروبوت لكل وحدة (الأساسي)تكلفة الروبوت لكل وحدة (الروبوتات…تكلفة الروبوت لكل وحدة (الروبوتات…Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/window-facade-cleaning/). Modelled es…

سنة التقاطع: الآن

What the spreadsheet misses

السلامة
Takes people off ropes and lifts for routine washes, the main reason buildings try it.
الجودة
Soft-wash rinsing is not squeegee-clean glass; ask for before and after photos.
المرونة
Rope teams also inspect sealant and fix things.
Edge cases
Wind, tall towers, dense downtowns and airspace rules limit drones.
Customer experience
Tenants prefer not having a person at the window.
Jobs and redeployment
Rope access shifts toward inspection and repair.
التنظيم
Drone pilot certification (FAA Part 107 or local equivalent), tethered-flight and water-runoff rules apply.

ذو صلة

مصادر هذه الصفحة

الملاحظات والمصادر بالإنجليزية، والنص الإنجليزي هو المرجع.

  1. Conventional lift/rope exterior cleaning bids $0.50-$3.50 per sq ft (for comparison with drone cleaning) Sky PSI (drone cleaning company), 2026-10 · vendor
  2. Drone facade/window cleaning, commercial buildings: $0.12-$0.25 per sq ft Vista Drone Cleaning, 2026-10 · vendor
  3. Lucid Bots Sherpa cleaning drone subscription for operators: $2,950-$4,600 per month Lucid Bots, 2026-10 · vendor
  4. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (median hourly wage by occupation) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025-05
  5. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026: wages and salaries 70.0% of private-industry compensation (series CMU2020000000000P) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-06
  6. Mean nominal hourly earnings of employees by sex and occupation (ISCO-08), DF_EAR_EHRA_SEX_OCU_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), from national labour force and earnings surveys, 2025
  7. Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity (lc_lci_lev): Germany 2022-2025, total labour cost vs wages and salaries per hour Eurostat, 2025
  8. Rates and thresholds for employers 2025 to 2026 (employer Class 1 NIC 15% above £5,000) HM Revenue & Customs, 2025-04-06
  9. 令和6年賃金構造基本統計調査 (Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2024), table 1 by occupation Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan (via e-Stat), 2024-06
  10. Average monthly earnings of employees by sex and economic activity, DF_EAR_EMTA_SEX_ECO_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), 2022
  11. Average annual wage of employed persons in urban units in 2024 (by position and by region) National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2025-05-20
  12. Euro foreign exchange reference rates (cross rates to USD), via Frankfurter European Central Bank, 2026-10-23
  13. Wright, T. P. (1936). Factors affecting the cost of airplanes. Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 3(4), 122-128 Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 1936
  14. Nagy, B., Farmer, J. D., Bui, Q. M., & Trancik, J. E. (2013). Statistical basis for predicting technological progress. PLoS ONE, 8(2), e52669 (62 technologies; Wright's law among the best hindcasters; errors grow with horizon) PLoS ONE, 2013