Lucid Bots Expanded Drone Fleet for Building Maintenance
The Charlotte-based company has added exterior painting and continuous power features to its industrial drone lineup.
Updated on Oct. 9, 2026 in Robotics
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Charlotte-based Lucid Bots has expanded its industrial drone platform to include painting and coating capabilities alongside its established cleaning services. The company also announced the Power Tether, a device designed to provide continuous electricity to its drones during operation.
Why it matters
By automating exterior maintenance tasks like cleaning and painting, Lucid Bots aims to eliminate the need for dangerous human labor at height. The expansion of these automated systems signifies an industrial move toward replacing manual rigging and scaffolding with robotics.
The Sherpa Drone operates at heights up to 150 feet, utilizing a universal software stack and modular frames to swap between pressure washing and painting payloads. Production currently holds at 25 spraying drones per month, with an equivalent output volume planned for the newly released Power Tether.
The players
Lucid Bots
A Charlotte-based robotics firm that develops industrial drones for building maintenance and surface coating.
The details
The system architecture relies on modular payload attachments that allow the Sherpa Drone to transition between soft washing, pressure washing, and window cleaning. The newly introduced Power Tether functions as a constant power source, mitigating battery limitations during extended maintenance operations. Lucid Bots coordinates these technical capabilities through a network of specialized vendors to maintain supply chain stability for their US-based manufacturing process.
Timeline
2018: Lucid Bots launched at Davidson College.
Several weeks ago: The company announced the launch of the Power Tether.
2026: Lucid Bots remains focused on US-based manufacturing operations.
The Tech Race
Lucid Bots is scaling its operations to compete in the burgeoning market for automated building services, currently serving over 400 customers across three continents. The company is actively moving to expand its service utility beyond sanitation into specialized construction tasks like industrial painting.
Building owners and maintenance contractors in the US can expect increased availability of automated cleaning and coating services as production of the Sherpa Drone continues. The transition from human-operated rigging to the 150-foot reach of these drones shifts standard building maintenance workflows toward robotic alternatives.
The takeaway
Lucid Bots represents the ongoing shift toward automating specialized manual labor in the building services sector. Watch for the official commercial rollout of their painting payload to see how effectively these systems can perform precision work compared to traditional human methods.
Further reading
For more on how automated systems are being integrated into industrial workflows, visit Robotics.
Source note: This article includes information reported by DRONELIFE.
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