Graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are helping to make restroom cleaning at the giant airport more efficient.

Students from CMU’s Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence and Innovation program have been jointly working with Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) to streamline its operations and to improve travelers’ experience. (Blue Sky News)

Restrooms a key challenge

Pre-pandemic, Pittsburgh International Airport catered to nearly 700,000 passengers monthly. Even after the fall in numbers the airport still has to keep its restrooms clean after every flight. It also has to find ways to make the cleaning operations more efficient so as to reduce costs given the lower traffic.

CMU students are using AI to optimize restroom cleaning schedules in sync with incoming flights and the passenger footfall at the restrooms.

Restrooms near an arrival zone or baggage belt would be a mess after a single flight. However, those further away need to be cleaned less frequently.

In these circumstances, how should the airport strike a balance between cleaning frequency, control on consumables and overall cost?

AI tackles messy restrooms

CMU and the airport’s xBridge innovation center are working on the problem.

The aim is to calculate real-time, smarter cleaning schedules using artificial intelligence that takes into account when and where flights are coming into Pittsburgh International Airport. The system also counts how many people are using a restroom based on a beam that counts people as they approach. The project will, eventually, install sensors that will send a signal to refill soap dispensers or to empty the garbage.

Professor Dr. Michael Shamos, director of CMU’s Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence and Innovation program, said the airport project is developing “a predictive AI system that takes all these disparate forms of data and develops a cleaning plan for the limited staff that the airport has. It was focused largely on restrooms because they’re the ones that get dirty quicker, but of course, the public areas do have to be cleaned too.”

Katherine Karolick, the airport’s Senior Vice President of Information Technology and leading the xBridge innovation center, said the CMU project can improve the passengers’ experience with even cleaner facilities—while also saving money in the process.

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