Autonomous floor scrubbers · Kitchener, Ontario, Canada · Steel Collar dealer line since September 2026

Avidbots

Autonomous floor scrubbers for airports, warehouses, plants, campuses and hospitals, built in Kitchener, Ontario, and sold through Steel Collar as an independent dealer since September 2026.

The maker

Avidbots was founded in Kitchener in 2014 by Pablo Molina and Faizan Sheikh and has done one thing since: autonomous cleaning. Its first robot, Neo, is now in its eighth generation, and the company says hundreds of Neos are at work in more than a dozen countries on five continents, with offices in Chicago, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Colombia.

The company holds ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 27001 certifications from BSI and is backed by True Ventures, Next47, GGV Capital and Golden Ventures. Production units come from its Kitchener-Waterloo plant, which matters to public buyers: Canada is a trade agreement country.

What they make

Every machine below is in our matrix with figures checked against the maker's published material on the date shown on its page.

• Avidbots Kas Compact autonomous scrubber (launched 2024) for retail, transit, healthcare, education.
• Avidbots Neo 2 Fully autonomous scrubber for large facilities (airports, malls, warehouses); maker states Neo is in its 8th generation.
• Avidbots Neo 2W Warehouse and plant version of the Neo 2 platform: cylindrical 24/32 in or disc 26/32 in heads, up to 6 h per charge on swappable AGM packs, 109 L solution and 135 L recovery tanks, 580 to 690 kg..

How the robots run, and how they are bought

Every robot runs Avidbots Autonomy, the company's own navigation and obstacle avoidance software, and reports into Command Center, a web application that shows cleaning maps, coverage by sector and productivity per run. That report is the proof-of-clean a facilities manager shows the tenant.

Three facts shape how these machines are bought. The robot needs an active software plan to operate, so the subscription is part of the machine, not an option. Deployment is a paid on-site service: someone maps the building, sets the routes and trains the staff. And field service in the United States and Canada runs through Burroughs, whose technicians are trained by Avidbots and dispatched by Avidbots support, with on-site response targeted within 48 hours. Prices for all of it come from a written quote prepared by our team and confirmed with Avidbots; none appear on this site.

Where they fit, and where they do not

Hard floors only: concrete, tile, epoxy, terrazzo, vinyl and stone. Carpet is vacuum territory and a different machine. Neo 2 wants open floor and large tanks, which is why airports, distribution centers and big-box retail are its home. Neo 2W adds the debris handling and route recovery a working warehouse needs. Kas is the compact one for supermarket aisles, transit stations, schools and hospitals, and it turns around in a 1.55 m aisle.

Weak cases, said plainly: small cluttered floors, buildings whose overnight floor is full of restock crews and pallets, routes that have to cross floors (these robots do not ride elevators without a costly integration), and anyone who expects the brochure's square feet per hour on a real floor. Ask for the conservative figure and the reason for it.

Who already runs them

Avidbots names airports including Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, Montreal-Trudeau, Singapore Changi, Tokyo Narita and Haneda, Osaka Kansai and Paris Charles de Gaulle; logistics operators DHL, DB Schenker, Ryder and DSV; hospitals including Sunnybrook, London Health Sciences, KK Women's and Children's and Khoo Teck Puat; and manufacturers Saint-Gobain, Tetra Pak, 3M and Toyota. Those are the maker's own references. Two of them are written up in our casebook with the numbers exactly as published:

• A Cincinnati airport puts a Neo scrubber on 200,000 square feet a week Vendor published
• A Las Vegas lighting warehouse doubles its floor and its cleaning output with one robot Vendor published

See it at work, from the maker

Neo and Kas in action on real floors, from Avidbots' own channel. It is the manufacturer's own footage, so watch it for what the machine looks like at work rather than as a promise of your results. Avidbots' YouTube channel opens on their site.

How Steel Collar works with Avidbots

We quote the robot, the software plan, deployment and any service plan in one written proposal, place the order, and stay the single point of contact; Avidbots and its service network deploy and maintain the machine. We provide first-level support on everything we sell.

Joe, our concierge, treats Avidbots as a dealer line and still ranks on fit. If your floors, aisles or budget point to a Tennant, a LionsBot or a Kärcher, he says so, because a machine that stays installed is the only sale worth making.