From Site Assessment to One Fixed Lease Quote, Step by Step

What does a site assessment actually produce?

A site assessment turns a walk through a building into facts a lease provider can price. The output is a floor survey, a route and charging plan, an integration scope and a training plan. Those four pieces are what allow a provider to state one fixed lease payment.

The order matters. A quote written before anyone has measured the floor is closer to a guess than a commitment. Lease pricing depends on the specific robot and the site, so a firm quote usually follows the assessment, not the first phone call.

Demand is also pushing more operators to ask for these quotes. According to IFR data as reported by Australian Manufacturing, professional service robot sales rose 24 percent in 2025 to almost 250,000 units, and professional cleaning robots ranked third, with floor cleaning as the main application. IFR notes that its service robot figures are sample data and are not projected to the whole market.

What does the floor survey measure?

The survey produces the base map the robot navigates from. According to Monster Janitorial, a scrubber vendor, as of November 2026, autonomous cleaning cannot run without a base map. LiDAR mapping is common, and some systems map autonomously rather than requiring a person to walk the perimeter with the machine.

The same vendor says a field technician assesses floor material and the dimensions of the space to be cleaned. SoftBank Robotics' quick start guide for its S50 scrubber asks the customer to complete a site environment survey before deployment. The survey is therefore a shared job, and the quote should say who did each part.

Public guides leave out the numbers you will need most: clearances, outlet requirements and charger to floor area ratios. Those come from the manufacturer's installation manual or a dealer site survey, so ask for them by name before you accept a quote.

How are routes and charging planned?

Routes follow from the map and from the work. Doors, aisles, elevators and the zones a shift must finish all shape the path. The survey should show where the robot cannot go as clearly as where it can, because a route that looks sound on a drawing can still stall at a threshold or a loading lip.

Charging is where many plans stumble. SoftBank Robotics' guide says the charging station location strongly affects how reliably the robot returns to it. The same guide warns against placing the station on soft flooring such as carpet, because the height difference can prevent charging.

Plan the charger site before the robot arrives. Confirm outlet access, a clear approach, and a spot that does not sit in the path of the route. A charger placed as an afterthought can cost a night its zone, even when the robot itself performs well.

What belongs in the integration scope and training?

Integration covers the work around the machine. It includes where the robot docks, how it is started and stopped at shift changes, how it reaches doors and elevators, and who is called when it stops mid route. Each of those should appear as a task with a named owner.

Cameras and connectivity add a second layer. A vendor guide notes that camera equipped, cloud connected machines may need a privacy check before deployment, citing GDPR for EU sites as one example. A US site still needs its own review of what the machine records and where that data goes.

Training should also appear in the quote by name. Ask who gets trained, how many sessions are included, and whether the people who will stop, charge and restart the robot on the night shift are among them.

How does a three year lease become one fixed payment?

Providers package the robot together with the services around it. As of November 2026, Holman describes a robot lease that bundles hardware, integration, software, maintenance and support into one predictable recurring payment. HowToRobot's leasing program offers 36 or 60 month terms, with one payment covering the robot, integration and training.

Terms vary. Acieta offers three to seven year leases and a 90 day payment deferral on automation solutions. A robot leasing guide from Robotics Center says standard equipment leases commonly run 24 to 72 months, with payments fixed in advance. A fixed payment is only as useful as the written list of what it covers.

Service Robot Co. is a full service commercial robot integrator for US businesses, and we offer leasing only. Our robots come through financing on a three year lease, with one fixed payment quoted after the site assessment. We select robots across manufacturers for the floor in front of us, then deploy, integrate, train and service every unit through a nationwide US engineer network.

What should the quote itemize?

A quote you can compare with night staffing lists the same things a crew schedule does: which zones, which hours, and who covers what when the plan breaks. Look for these items in writing.

Then set the quote beside your own overnight hours. Count the hours a crew covers now, the zones it cleans, and the gaps that open when someone calls out. Put the fixed payment next to that total, then add any site work the quote leaves to you. The comparison is honest only when the gaps are counted as carefully as the robot's runs.

• The robot model and unit count, with a spare coverage plan for a unit taken out of service
• The survey and map scope, including who drew the map and how it is revised after layout changes
• Charging station count, placement, and the outlet and access work the site must provide
• The zone and route plan, with the hours each zone is cleaned
• Integration tasks and go live support, with the dates they finish
• Training sessions, attendees, and refresher timing
• Service response terms, covering remote fault triage and on site dispatch
• Lease term, payment start date, and what the quote excludes