For solar asset owners, dust is rarely just dust. On a factory rooftop or a distributed PV station, a thin layer of dirt can become a recurring operational problem: lower power output, irregular cleaning schedules, water access issues, and workers exposed to repetitive tasks in difficult outdoor conditions.
X-Human’s Lingguang G2 solar cleaning robot was developed for that less glamorous but highly consequential part of photovoltaic operation and maintenance. To understand the thinking behind the product, we spoke with Daniel Wei, Head of Product Strategy at X-Human Robotics, about why solar cleaning is shifting from a manual job into a more structured, automated maintenance process.
Many people still see solar panel cleaning as a simple maintenance chore. From X-Human’s perspective, what is actually at stake when panels stay dirty?
Daniel Wei:The first thing we try to explain is that dirty panels are not only a cleaning issue. They are an asset performance issue.For a solar project owner, every panel has a financial expectation attached to it. It is supposed to generate power in a predictable way over many years. But when dust, pollen, sand, bird droppings, or industrial residue accumulate on the surface, that predictability is weakened. The owner may still see the system operating, but the output is no longer aligned with the asset’s potential.So the real question is not, “Are the panels visibly dirty?” The better question is, “How much control does the operator have over the conditions that affect generation?”That is where we see the role of robotic cleaning. The real cost of dirty panels is not only lost sunlight. It is the loss of control over an asset that is supposed to perform predictably.
When you developed the G2, what was the first operational pain point you wanted to remove from the cleaning process?
Daniel Wei:
We started from the daily reality of cleaning teams.In many projects, especially on factory rooftops, the job sounds simple from a distance. But once you are on site, it becomes more complicated. Workers may need to carry equipment onto the roof, move between rows, manage hoses, avoid stepping on sensitive areas, and work around heat, slope, wind, and limited space. At a small PV station, the challenge may be fewer people and less specialized equipment. At a larger plant, the challenge becomes scale and consistency.The first pain point we wanted to address was the dependence on repeated manual movement across the array. That movement consumes time, creates safety concerns, and introduces inconsistency.
G2 was designed so one operator can manage the cleaning process with remote control or automatic operation. The robot takes over the repetitive surface work, while the person moves into a supervisory role. That shift matters. It changes the work from physical repetition to controlled operation.
The G2 is designed for factory rooftops, small PV stations, and medium-to-large solar plants. Those environments are very different. How did you avoid building a robot that only works well in ideal conditions?
Daniel Wei:
We did not want to design for a showroom version of solar cleaning.Real sites have uneven layouts, different panel inclinations, limited water access, and operators with different levels of training. A factory rooftop may have narrow movement space and edge-risk concerns. A small PV station may need a machine that is easy to transport and deploy. A larger plant needs efficiency, route logic, and predictable coverage.
That is why G2 combines several practical design choices rather than relying on one headline feature. It is relatively lightweight, supports dry and wet cleaning, can work with remote control or automatic modes, and uses recognition and navigation capabilities to support route planning.The goal was not to make a robot for one perfect surface. The goal was to make a robot that can become useful across the kinds of imperfect environments where solar assets actually operate.
Your product materials mention AI recognition, automatic navigation, and route planning. In practical terms, what does that change for an O&M team on site?
Daniel Wei:
It reduces the amount of constant judgment required from the operator.In manual cleaning, the worker is making small decisions all the time: where to start, how to move, whether a section was already cleaned, where the edge is, how to avoid repeating the same path, and how to finish the task without missing areas. On a few panels, that may seem manageable. Across a large array, it becomes a source of fatigue and variation.With G2, recognition and route planning are used to make the cleaning process more structured. The operator is no longer guiding every motion like a manual tool. Instead, the machine can follow planned routes and support more consistent movement across the panel surface.
Cleaning speed is easy to advertise, but consistency is harder to prove. How does the G2 approach coverage, pressure, and repeatability across a large solar array?
Daniel Wei:
That is an important distinction. Speed is visible. Consistency is what creates trust.In solar cleaning, a fast machine that leaves uneven results is not enough. Operators need to know that the robot can cover the intended area, maintain suitable contact, and repeat the process in a way that makes sense for scheduled maintenance.
G2 is designed around stable movement, brush-based cleaning, route planning, and coverage logic. The product is not just trying to move quickly from one end to the other. It is trying to turn cleaning into a repeatable process.This is especially important for O&M teams that manage multiple sites. They do not want every cleaning task to depend on who happened to be assigned that day. A cleaning robot should not simply move faster than a worker. It should make the whole maintenance process more predictable.
The G2 supports both dry and wet cleaning. How do you think about the trade-off between cleaning performance, water use, and site conditions?
Daniel Wei:
We see dry and wet cleaning as operational flexibility.Not every site should be cleaned the same way. Some projects are in water-constrained areas. Some rooftops have difficult water access. Some surfaces mainly have loose dust, while others may need a stronger cleaning method. If a robot only supports one approach, the operator has less room to adapt.Dry cleaning can be useful when the main issue is dust and when water logistics are costly or inconvenient. Wet cleaning may be more suitable when the surface condition requires it. The point is not to claim one method is always better. The point is to give the operator a choice based on site conditions, contamination type, and maintenance strategy.
The machine is relatively lightweight, yet it still has to remain stable on tilted panels. What were the main design compromises behind that balance?
Daniel Wei:
Lightweight design sounds simple until you consider the full operating environment.If the machine is too heavy, it becomes harder to transport, harder for one person to deploy, and more demanding on the site. If it is too light, it may lose stability, especially on inclined panels or under outdoor conditions. So the design question was not simply, “How light can we make it?” It was, “How light can we make it while preserving the stability and cleaning performance required for field use?”
G2 uses a structure intended to balance portability with stable operation. We also paid attention to edge-related safety and movement control because rooftop and sloped-panel environments do not forgive careless design.For us, the best industrial design is often invisible. The operator should not spend the whole job thinking about the machine’s weight, balance, or safety logic. Those things should already be working in the background.
For many operators, the biggest concern is not whether a robot can clean one row, but whether it can fit into their existing maintenance workflow. How does G2 change the daily routine of a cleaning crew?
Daniel Wei:
It changes the role of the person on site.Traditionally, a cleaning crew may spend much of the task physically moving, brushing, rinsing, adjusting hoses, and checking whether sections were missed. With G2, the operator can manage the robot through remote control or automatic operation, monitor progress, and intervene when necessary.That is a different workflow. The person is still important, but the most repetitive part of the task moves to the machine.
What hidden costs in traditional PV cleaning do you think buyers often underestimate?
Daniel Wei:
Many buyers first compare the robot with labor cost. That is understandable, but it is incomplete.The hidden costs often include supervision, safety preparation, transportation, water coordination, inconsistent coverage, rework, and the opportunity cost of not cleaning at the right time. On a rooftop, there may also be additional safety requirements. In a distributed project, just moving teams between sites can become expensive.
Another hidden cost is management uncertainty. If you cannot easily know whether cleaning was done consistently, the maintenance result becomes difficult to evaluate. Then you are not only paying for labor. You are also carrying uncertainty.Our position is not that every site has the same cost structure. They do not. But we do believe operators should calculate the full cost of manual cleaning, not only the hourly wage of the worker holding the brush.
Looking ahead, do you see solar cleaning robots becoming standalone tools, or part of a broader intelligent O&M system?
Daniel Wei:
In the long run, they will become part of a broader system.Today, many customers still think in terms of equipment: “I need a robot to clean panels.” That is a reasonable starting point. But as solar assets become larger, more distributed, and more professionally managed, the question becomes bigger. Operators will want better visibility, better scheduling, better condition assessment, and better links between maintenance actions and energy output.Cleaning is one part of that intelligent O&M picture. A robot like G2 helps make the cleaning action more controlled. Over time, we expect these machines to connect more closely with inspection, reporting, maintenance planning, and performance management.Solar power is built on predictability. The more predictable the maintenance system becomes, the more value the asset owner can protect.
As the conversation went on, one logic kept returning: X-Human is not treating cleaning as a race across the panel surface, but as a discipline of consistency. That explains why the G2 story keeps circling back to route planning, usability, edge protection, and operator control rather than speed alone.
The stronger value of the G2 lies in how it reframes a familiar maintenance task. It does not ask solar operators to see cleaning as an occasional reaction to visible dirt. It asks them to see it as a controllable layer of asset management. For rooftop owners, small PV stations, and larger solar plants, that shift may be more important than any single specification: the move from manual response to operational control.
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