Saturday, October 18, 2025
Home Business Automation SCCRUB Robot Revolutionizes Ho...
Automation
Business Honor
23 July, 2025
Northeastern University’s SCCRUB robot brings powerful, safe automation to everyday household chores.
Northeastern University researchers have developed a new robot that could significantly transform the way we clean our homes. SCCRUB, a robot arm, is intended to scrub filthy surfaces — chores that take forever and are not very interesting for most people. While robot vacuum cleaners and mop robots are standard in many homes, SCCRUB goes a step further and removes stubborn stains such as burnt food, grease, and sticky spills.
The SCCRUB robot features a soft, yet robust, robotic arm that can bend. Strong robot arms employed to scrub surfaces are usually too dangerous to employ close to individuals. But with this new technology, TRUNC cells (torsionally rigid universal couplings) are employed, which allow the arm to flex and twist but still exert the pressure needed to scrub. It is hence safe and effective to employ around households.
To enhance its cleaning capacity, the robot is equipped with a counter-rotating brush powered by a planetary gear system that allows it to push against surfaces as well as remove friction. It is also equipped with an AI-driven controller that maps each step accurately, causing the robot to clean surfaces without damaging them. SCCRUB scrubbed surfaces such as a microwave-spilled glass plate and even a sticky fruit preserves-covered toilet seat during experiments. The robot successfully scraped more than 99% of residue — a good leap towards future home cleaning automation.
Lead researcher Jeffrey Lipton and his team also plan to continue refining SCCRUB so it is able to do more work around the home in the future. They see themselves working on creating safe, affordable, and effective robots that can live alongside people in homes and make life easier through domestic automation. This is a significant improvement in the trend towards popularizing automated household solutions and soft robotics in everyday life.