While Heliotex is not an expert on robot systems, most we have seen require manual labor to move them from one row of panels to another. Others are set on arrays and move around. The real difference here is that they are NOT automatic. One still has labor costs and cleaning does not occur on a regular schedule.
Large arrays also make robots problematic in that manually moving them from one row or array to another takes time. The robots tend to be slow and a large array may takes days or even weeks to clean. For utility size arrays, one would need a permanent crew.
There are two important points here. One, with robots as with manual cleaning one never has all of the panels clean at the same time. You are always losing power on some of you panels. Second, the key to keeping the panels clean is to not let them get dirty. With our automatic system we can tailor the programming to your specific site and season. In that way, you keep your panels clean and producing to their potential at all times, not just a few times a year when manually or robotically cleaned.
