Getting cleaning robots right in tenders and bills of quantities

Solutions

The entire procurement market is robotics-free: no standard specification explains how robot performance is tendered, evaluated and accepted. Here is how it works.

An entire procurement market without robotics

Municipal templates, model bills of quantities, tender platforms: in building cleaning, robotics is practically absent from tendering practice. Anyone who wants to procure automated cleaning finds no standard clause – and therefore either writes product-specific text (and becomes contestable) or writes nothing at all.

Our answer: we do not only supply machines, we supply the language used to procure them. Product-neutral, evidence-oriented, fit for acceptance.

How robot performance goes into a bill of quantities cleanly

  • As a service, not as a device: area, frequency, result quality, documentation duty. The means is left to the bidder.
  • Evidence as an award criterion: a cleaning report per task with area, time and result, exportable.
  • A clear interface: which items may be fulfilled robotically and which expressly may not.
  • Time windows instead of full automation: night capability and weekend service as separate items.
  • Acceptance: reconciling the reports with the bill of quantities instead of visual inspection by feel.

Your robot. Your data.

A robot working in your organisation sees and hears things that are nobody’s business outside it. That is why the AI processing runs on the device and not in someone else’s cloud. A permanent internet connection is not required for operation — closed hospital, care and laboratory networks are possible. What is created with you stays with you: you decide on storage, analysis and deletion. Through uGo+ you define who may start which tasks, and mission reports are auditable — the basis for a data protection impact assessment, for the works council and for the authorities.

Buy or rent: Robot-as-a-Service

You can buy or rent as Robot-as-a-Service. With rental you pay a recurring monthly rate covering hardware, software maintenance and service together — from the operating budget instead of the capital budget. This is the usual route for a pilot and for a step-by-step rollout across several sites.

An honest note: rental is not automatically cheaper than purchase — it shifts risk and timing. What adds up for your organisation depends on term, quantity, funding options and budget structure. We work through that openly with you in the first conversation instead of selling you a model. We do not publish prices, because configuration and integration scope decide the outcome — a figure without that context would be misleading.

Why us

  • More than 500 units in daily operation in hospitals and laboratories — not a pilot promise but shift work.
  • More than 20,000 robots in use across all product lines — 15 years of experience with people who work alongside robots.
  • uGo+ as one interface for tasks, permissions, analysis and fleet — across several sites too.
  • Manufacturer, not reseller. Development, integration and service come from us.

Try it first

Before a robot moves in your facility, your workflow has already run at ours: at our training centres in Stuhr (laboratory and diagnostics) and Gelsenkirchen (hospital and care) we rehearse your workflow on a real set-up. Book a training-centre visit.

Frequently asked questions

How do you specify cleaning robots in a bill of quantities?

Not as a device but as a service: defined areas, frequency, result quality and documentation duty. The robot is then a means of fulfilment for the bidder, not the subject of the award.

May robot deployment be required in a tender?

You can formulate requirements for documentation, reproducibility and night capability that in practice can only be met economically with automation – without prescribing a specific product. The tender then remains product-neutral.

How is robot performance accepted?

Through cleaning reports per task with area, time and result. These records are exportable and can be reconciled with the bill of quantities.

What does not belong in a robot bill of quantities?

Sanitary areas, patient rooms, hand-contact surfaces and edges. Assigning these items to a robot produces change orders and disputes at acceptance.

Do you support the drafting?

Yes. We provide text modules for the service description, documentation duties and acceptance criteria – phrased product-neutrally so that your tender remains legally sound.

The next step

A first conversation takes twenty minutes. Afterwards you will know whether deployment adds up in your organisation — and if it does not, we will say so. Get in touch through the contact form or directly with your contact person.

Sources: OECD, Health at a Glance: Europe 2024 · Federal Statistical Office of Germany, care workforce projection, press release of 23 January 2024 · German Economic Institute, MINT Spring Report 2026.

What counts in a tender

100 %

logged area performance

0

product names needed in the tender

2

procurement routes: rent or buy

A good tender describes effect, not technology.

The most common cause of failed robot projects is not technology but a specification written around a device instead of around a result.

The sensible route is the reverse: which areas, in which time window, with what evidence, in which environment, with what connection to existing doors and lifts. The system follows from that — not the other way round.

We support you deliberately vendor-neutrally and supply the technical detail you need for a robust specification. Even when someone else wins the contract in the end.

Solution enquiry

Ask about this solution

Tell us what you need — we reply with an honest assessment, usually within one working day.

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Have your specification reviewed

Send us your draft. We will mark what works in practice and what unnecessarily excludes suppliers.

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