Pudu BG1 series: what Pudu launched in 2026, and what our demonstrations revealed

On 25 March 2026, Pudu Robotics introduced its BG1 series: a pair of big autonomous machines that pick up debris and wash the floor on the same run. Six months on, we have put the series to work in warehouses and factories. Here is what Pudu announced, what the machines genuinely add, and what we learned on real floors. For the full line-up and our status as an authorised distributor, see our Pudu robots overview.

The launch: a series, not a single model

Pudu unveiled the BG1 from Shenzhen as a family of "large-scale" scrubber-dryers, sitting alongside its CC1 compact scrubbers and MT1 sweepers. The announcement targeted shopping centres, warehouses, industrial sites and transport hubs. The series then went on show at MODEX in Atlanta in April and at Interclean in Amsterdam in 2026.

For context, Pudu said at the time that it was present in more than 80 countries and regions and had delivered more than 120,000 robots. The series therefore comes from a manufacturer with a large installed base, not from a start-up showing a prototype.

The starting point is straightforward. On a big floor, sweeping and then scrubbing used to take two passes, and often two machines. The BG1 puts both jobs into one chassis.

What the series brings

Sweeping and scrubbing on the same run

Up front, a sweeper unit gathers dust, wrappers and loose bits; at the back, the scrub deck applies solution, brushes and squeegees the floor dry. Output ranges, according to Pudu, from 600 m²/h at walking pace (0.3 m/s) to 2,000 m²/h at a full metre per second. Scrubbing width is 55 cm; sweeping reaches 70.8 cm with the side brush.

Recognising dry and wet dirt

This is the heart of Pudu's dirt-recognition function: the robot spots dry soiling and liquids in real time and changes what it does. Meet a spill and the sweeping gear is raised clear; meet an ingrained mark and the brush bears down harder; meet a grubby area and it targets that patch rather than re-cleaning the whole zone.

Reaching the edge

Pudu presents its extendable brush as an industry first: it pushes out to the side and works right up against walls and rack uprights, the band of floor that operatives used to finish manually behind a robot scrubber.

Precise dosing, unattended operation

Chemical is dispensed in millilitre steps and adjusted by the robot itself. The station takes care of filling, draining and charging, allowing an autonomous loop around the clock. Navigation merges 3D LiDAR with 3D VSLAM, sound and light signals warn people nearby, and routine care takes one minute with no tools.

BG1 or BG1 Pro

The series has two members with identical cleaning hardware; the choice depends on where they will work.

For a standard warehouse or hypermarket, the BG1 does the job. The BG1 Pro becomes worthwhile once the route includes parking decks, bumps or changes of level.

Three design choices that went unnoticed

Launch coverage mostly picked up on sweeping and scrubbing in one pass. The series' technical documentation sheds light on three less visible choices that nevertheless shape everyday results.

The bin is at the front. Debris as high as 30 mm is flicked by the side brush and a roller brush into a 5 L hopper at the nose; the scrub brush works behind and the squeegee dries. The brush therefore never grinds over a floor still covered in grit, which is why a lightly soiled floor needs no separate sweep beforehand.

A single side brush, on the right. It widens the sweep to 70.8 cm, against 52 cm without it. So that edges are never missed, the route planner runs loops that keep walls to the robot's right and overlaps each lane by roughly 10 cm. If an aisle is tighter than the 1.4 m it needs to turn, it backs out instead of leaving the cul-de-sac uncleaned.

Two detergent cartridges. 7 L of capacity across two separate containers, each able to take its own chemical, whether that means detergent plus disinfectant, acidic plus alkaline, or a defoamer. On a site that alternates between sales areas and technical zones, one machine can apply the right chemistry in the right place.

On stamina, Pudu gives 7.5 hours in economy setting, between 4,500 and 15,000 m² on one charge, and three power levels running from 62 to 75 dB. Those figures, more than peak output, are what size a night-time cleaning plan.

What our demonstrations showed

We demonstrated the BG1 on several sites in September 2026. Three findings kept coming back (clients anonymised, floor areas rounded).

Scrubbing makes the difference on lightly soiled floors

At a packaging manufacturer with some 30,000 m² split evenly between warehousing and production, the storage floor was already tidy, so a sweep made little visible difference. Washing it did, and the client asked for a two-day trial.

It keeps up a frequency the team no longer can

A furniture distribution centre of roughly 18,000 m² relied on one person driving a ride-on scrubber two hours daily, which at best meant the whole floor got washed once a week. On the day, the robot showed it could sustain the cleaning rhythm staff could no longer manage.

The right order of passes

The BG1 excels at scrubbing large, lightly soiled floors. If there are items over 3 cm lying about, send the MT1 sweeper through first and let the BG1 wash afterwards: one distribution warehouse we visited opted for exactly that pairing.

All our field feedback is gathered on our case studies page.

Its place in the range

The BG1 does not replace the compact models. The CC1 and the ET1 remain the formats for medium-sized, cluttered spaces such as offices, hotels and shops, because the BG1 needs 85 cm aisles and weighs 348 kg. The MT1 remains the sweeper for floors heavy with debris. The BG1 fills the space in between: the large floor that has to be scrubbed as regularly as it is swept.

To go further, our autonomous floor scrubber comparison sets the BG1 against the other large machines on the market, and our page on the Gausium Omnie covers its most direct competitor.

In practice

Full specifications, uses by type of site, limits and videos are on our PUDU BG1 page. We supply it either on a rental that covers everything (machine, base, servicing, wear parts and a replacement unit if needed) or for purchase backed by a service agreement, priced once we have run a free trial at your premises.

That demonstration is where the figures in this article are put to the test: real runtime in the mode you will use, the aisles the robot can and cannot reach, whether a sweeper needs to go first, and where the station should sit. How many robots you need, and on what schedule, comes from those measurements rather than from the spec sheet.