Robots at railway stations

Cleaning robots have been tested and deployed at four major stations of France – Paris Gare du Nord, Paris Gare de Lyon, Aix-en- Provence and Bordeaux. They are automated scrubber dryers developed by the Sud Service company and have been contracted for several years. The cleaning operator just needs to press a button to make the machine work inside a specified area. A window cleaning robot has also been tested at the Valence-TGV railway station for dealing with high level windows and spider webs.

A robotic dustbin named Baryl, developed technically by a start-up called Immersive Robotics, and designed by Areb designlab – a wholly owned SNCF subsidiary – has been tested in some stations. It performs random movements within a given area and responds to the calls of users who need to dispose of rubbish. When it’s full, it sends an SMS message requiring that it be emptied. It is equipped with a 3D camera, a laser remote detection device and several sensors, and is working at Aix-en- Provence station.

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