Elandro: An Automated Laundry Cart for Hospitality Workflows

Musculoskeletal injuries from manual laundry cart transportation are very common for workers in the hospitality industry. To address this, we designed Elandro, a teleoperated laundry cart that collaboratively helps hotel staff with transportation across and within floors at a hotel. Through iterative user research at Statler Hotel, and wizard-of-oz interaction testing, we revealed design requirements essential for successful human-robot interaction. Elandro contributes to reducing physical strain on workers, maintaining staff autonomy and decision-making, establishing a human-centered approach where technology empowers rather than replaces hospitality workers.