Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 3rd September 2026 Issue no. 1224
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Lucid Bots launches ground-powered continuous flight cleaning drone system
Lucid Bots has announced the Power Tether, saying it is the first company to bring a ground-powered continuous-power system to commercial cleaning and spraying drones. The system supplies continuous external power to the Sherpa drone, reducing planned battery-change interruptions during longer cleaning and spraying operations.
Conventional battery operations require the drone to land periodically so crews can swap packs, relaunch and reacquire position. The Power Tether shifts the primary power source to the ground: its air module mounts in the Sherpa drone's battery bay, while a ground station connects to a compatible generator.
The result is a longer, steadier work session with fewer planned interruptions and less need to schedule the job around battery cycles.
Adoption data reflects the shift. Among customers who have logged more than an hour on the Power Tether, more than 90% of their flight time now runs on tether power, with batteries used for the remaining 10%. That split is a signal that once crews have the system on hand, they default to it for the bulk of the job.
"Those hours belong to our customers," says Andrew Ashur, founder and CEO of Lucid Bots. “A year in the air is a year of everyday businesses generating revenue and doing dangerous work faster and more safely.
"Too much of robotics has lived in the promise of headlines. This is customers on job sites building real companies and creating real value.
“The Power Tether also ends the old battery debate that has dominated our industry. Once customers try it, the data shows they don't go back to swapping packs. Crews stay focused on the building instead of the battery clock.”
The Power Tether installs in less than 15 minutes on compatible Sherpa drone systems. Firmware monitors power draw in real time and alerts operators as they approach operating limits. If generator power is lost, onboard battery backup supports the system's automatic landing sequence.
In a continuous-flight test at Lucid Bots headquarters, a Power Tether-equipped Sherpa drone remained airborne for eight hours and 48 seconds on one generator connection with no battery swaps.
The Power Tether is designed for commercial building-maintenance work where longer flight sessions help crews maintain job momentum, including exterior facade, window, hotel, institutional and distribution-centere applications.
This announcement comes as Lucid Bots operators have recently recorded more than 8,760 cumulative flight hours; the equivalent of more than one full calendar year in the air. Measured through telemetry data as of August 17th, the milestone aggregates airborne time across 600+ Sherpa drones. It represents cumulative activity across the network, not a single continuous flight and not exclusively Power Tether-powered flight.
Product specifications, operating requirements and purchasing information are available at:
lucidbots.com/products/power-tether
3rd September 2026