Tennant and RealSense Bring Smarter Autonomy to Commercial Floor Cleaning
The challenge
Facility managers across healthcare, manufacturing, retail, education, airports, and distribution centers need cleaner facilities but have fewer people available for routine floor care. High turnover and labor shortages make it difficult to dedicate employees to repetitive cleaning tasks, and these robots must operate in dynamic environments where forklifts appear unexpectedly, pallets shift, lighting changes, and customers move through aisles while stores remain open.
The solution
Rather than build every layer of autonomy internally, Tennant combined its floor-cleaning expertise with proven robotics technologies, making RealSense depth cameras a central part of its perception stack. The cameras deliver millimeter-level depth accuracy and real-time 3D sensing that allows the robots to detect obstacles, recognize people and moving objects, map environments, and make safe navigation decisions in shared workspaces.
The results
The combination of Tennant’s robotics platform and RealSense depth technology has supported the company’s expansion from a single autonomous scrubber into a growing portfolio including the X4 ROVR and X6 ROVR. Customers can clean more frequently without adding staff, redirect employees to higher-value work, and maintain more consistent schedules, while ongoing software and firmware updates let the robots improve over time without replacing the underlying perception hardware.
Autonomy Built for Unpredictable Environments
Tennant’s X4 ROVR and X6 ROVR autonomous floor scrubbers are designed for spaces that never stay the same, where forklifts appear without warning and customers move unpredictably through aisles. Powered by RealSense depth cameras, the robots understand their surroundings in three dimensions and move confidently around people without disrupting daily operations.
A Perception Stack That Stays Ahead of the Software
RealSense depth cameras give Tennant a technology ceiling that sits ahead of where today’s software is, allowing the robots to keep delivering more value as capabilities evolve. Ongoing software and firmware updates let the machines improve over time without replacing the underlying perception hardware.
Robots That Become Part of the Team
Customer attitudes toward autonomous cleaning have shifted dramatically, and one of Tennant’s favorite signs of acceptance is surprisingly simple. It marks the moment the machines become trusted members of the team rather than just another piece of equipment.
“RealSense cameras play a critical role in Tennant’s perception stack. They enable our robots to understand, interpret and navigate the spaces they operate in. The cameras deliver millimeter-level depth accuracy and real-time 3D sensing that allows our robots to detect obstacles, map environments and make safe navigation decisions.”
— Aaron Stotko,
Director of Product, Robotics