How to Choose an Autonomous Floor Scrubber
A robot takes over the repeatable part of floor care, so the labor you have goes to the work a machine can't do. Three questions decide whether one fits your facility.
How much floor per zone and per charge? Robots clean in zones, and ICE advises keeping each Cobi 18 zone under about 5,000 square feet. At its projected 5,380 square feet an hour and 1 to 1.5 hours a charge, one charge covers roughly 5,400 to 8,100 square feet.
How stable is your layout? Sensors steer around people, carts and new fixtures, but results are most consistent on floors that look the same every night. Map during quiet hours and remap after a permanent change.
What about edges and service? Side brushes reach just past the machine body, but plan for someone to mop corners, under fixtures and behind doors. For the full split between robot and crew, see what is cobotics, and our guide to how a robotic floor scrubber works explains why robots leave a strip along walls. For repairs, ICE supports owners by chat, email and phone.
Before you order, walk your building with our robotic floor scrubber requirements checklist. Then send your square footage, floor types and schedule through the contact page or call (855) 601-5678 for a straight answer. Unused machines fall under the 30-day return policy.
| Model | Cleaning path | Projected coverage | Run time per charge | Solution / recovery tank | Setup | Price |
|---|
| ICE Cobotics Cobi 18 | 18.8 in | 5,380 sq ft/hr | 1 to 1.5 h | 2.6 / 2.9 gal | Push to teach, or trace the perimeter | From $18,000 |
Robotic Floor Scrubber Price: What You Pay and What You Get
Commercial robots start under $9,000 for entry-level units. Compact robots with AI navigation run around $22,000 to $24,000, and large ride-on robots run from about $56,000 to over $110,000.
The Cobi 18 lists at $18,000. ICE includes its i-SYNERGY fleet software, which shows what was cleaned, and ten wall codes that mark where routes start. ICE doesn't publish a warranty term or a software renewal fee, so ask before you order and you'll get both confirmed by ICE.
To judge payback, count the labor hours spent scrubbing the floor the robot would cover. A robotic floor scrubber gives most of those hours back, but someone still tends it and cleans the edges. The return usually shows up as floors that get done on short-staffed shifts, more than as a smaller crew. For a worked payback example and a calculator, see our guide to robotic floor scrubber cost and ROI.
When an Autonomous Scrubber Is the Wrong Machine
Skip the robot if your floor changes every day, like classrooms or event spaces you reset for each booking. Skip it for heavy soil, grease or pallet debris. Check grades and doors too: the Cobi 18 is rated for a 2% grade in autonomous mode, and it can't open doors.
If you came looking for an industrial robotic floor scrubber for a large warehouse, ride-on floor scrubbers cover far more floor per tank, and our robotic vs ride-on floor scrubber guide compares the two. For small rooms full of edges, compact floor scrubbers and walk-behind floor scrubbers cost less. The guide to the types of floor scrubbers compares every format.
Autonomous Floor Scrubber FAQ
What costs come on top of the purchase price?
Mostly wear parts and your time. Brushes, side brushes and squeegee blades wear like those on any floor machine, and someone fills, empties and charges it after each run. Ask whether fleet software renews for a fee after the first term, and who services the robot near you, before you compare prices.
Are floor cleaning robots worth it?
Usually, if you scrub the same open floor every day and struggle to staff that shift. A robot keeps that floor consistent while your team handles restrooms, spills and edges. If your floors are cluttered or scrubbed once a week, an operator-driven machine is the better buy. The guide to robotic floor scrubber ROI walks through the math for robots.
Does it fill, drain and charge itself?
Not the Cobi 18. ICE doesn't list a self-docking station for it, so your staff fill the solution tank, empty the recovery tank and plug it in. ICE built the tanks to be easy to empty and clean, and one fill matches one charge, so it's one short task per run.
How do you teach it a route?
You push it once. With the Cobi 18 you walk the machine along the path while it cleans and maps, and it repeats that path on its own afterward. You can also trace a room's perimeter and let it scrub the interior, run several routes back to back, or schedule a start time for after closing.
Can an autonomous floor scrubber use an elevator?
Not the Cobi 18. Its manual says not to train routes through elevators, escalators or automatic doors, so you move it between floors and give each floor its own home location code. Some robots can ride an elevator that supports them, and our guide to robot elevator integration explains what that takes.
What happens when carts or pallets block an aisle?
It goes around them. The Cobi 18 combines LiDAR, cameras and ultrasonic sensors to detect people and obstacles and steer clear, and it copes with mirrors and bright sunlight. A blocked patch can be skipped on that run, so check the cleaning map.
Do you still have to sweep before it runs?
For anything more than light debris, yes. The Cobi 18's side brushes and small hopper catch light litter, and ICE recommends dust mopping before you map. On floors with grit or sand, dust mop first so the brush and squeegee don't drag it across the floor.
