Glossary / Operations
What is Elevator Integration?
Elevator integration allows a robot to call, board and exit lifts independently, so it can operate across multiple floors of a building without human help.
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For multi-storey buildings — hotels, hospitals, office blocks — elevator integration is what allows a robot's usefulness to extend beyond a single floor. Rather than requiring a person to press the button and hold the doors, the robot communicates directly with the lift control system to call a lift, confirm it's the correct one, board, select a floor and exit safely.
This typically requires the lift itself to support an API or control interface, which not all older lift systems have. Retrofitting elevator integration is possible in many cases but should be scoped during a site survey, since it affects overall project cost and timeline compared with single-floor deployments.
Where integration isn't feasible, some operations instead deploy a robot per floor, or plan routes so staff manually escort the robot between floors during lift use, though this reduces the labour-saving benefit compared with full integration.
Common questions
- Can any robot use a lift automatically?
- Only with elevator integration, which requires the lift control system to support a compatible interface — this is assessed during a site survey.
- Does every lift support robot integration?
- No, older lift systems may need upgrading or lack a suitable interface entirely, in which case per-floor deployment may be more practical.
- Does elevator integration add significant cost?
- It can, depending on the lift system's existing capability, which is why it's scoped and costed as part of the site survey rather than assumed as standard.
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