--- title: "Lucid Bots washed a 23-story casino tower by drone and opened a $250 waiting list with no price on it" description: "A rooftop pulley carried the hose so a Sherpa drone could clean 280 feet up a Colorado casino tower. Lucid Bots, which raised $20 million in March, is now taking $250 refundable deposits on a product with no published price or rated height." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Robotics & Defense" published: 2026-11-04T18:12:22.235Z modified: 2026-11-04T18:12:22.235Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/lucid-bots-washed-a-23-story-casino-tower-by-drone-and-opened-a-250-waiting-list-with-no-price-on-it language: en keywords: "Drones, Robotics, Physical AI, Commercial Cleaning, Startups" --- # Lucid Bots washed a 23-story casino tower by drone and opened a $250 waiting list with no price on it > A rooftop pulley carried the hose so a Sherpa drone could clean 280 feet up a Colorado casino tower. Lucid Bots, which raised $20 million in March, is now taking $250 refundable deposits on a product with no published price or rated height. ## A tower washed from the ground up Late September, in the mountain town of Black Hawk, Colorado, a Sherpa cleaning drone from Charlotte robotics maker [Lucid Bots](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/lucid-bots) climbed the full 280 feet of the Monarch Casino Resort Spa's 23-story hotel tower, washing as it went [1]. The town sits roughly 8,000 feet above sea level, where thinner air makes lift harder to generate [1]. What made the job possible sat on the roof: the Sherpa HighLine, a software-controlled motorized pulley [unveiled a month ago, on October 1](https://www.morningstar.com/news/pr-newswire/20261001cl61255/lucid-bots-takes-drone-cleaning-beyond-280-feet-with-new-sherpa-highline-rooftop-pulley-system), that carries part of the cleaning hose's weight so the aircraft carries less [1][2]. "Without it, we couldn't have completed the project on time," said Parker Eakins, owner of Oklahoma Drone Technologies, one of three operators on the job [1][2]. ## A ground-fed drone's load grows with every foot of height A drone fed by a ground pump must carry the suspended hose and the water standing in it, and every foot of height adds another foot of hose [1]. Drone trade publication [DRONELIFE](https://dronelife.com/2026/10/08/lucid-bots-cleaning-drones-painting/) puts the Sherpa's working height at about 150 feet, and Lucid Bots' own product page describes 180 feet in supported configurations [3][4]. ## A $250 deposit before the price exists The rooftop pulley took one job to 280 feet, which the company calls the highest drone cleaning in the United States [1]. Lucid has published neither a maximum supported height nor a price [4][5]. [Its store takes $250 refundable deposits](https://lucidbots.shop/products/sherpa-highline), credited toward a purchase that still requires company approval and paid training, and final pricing is not set until the company finishes costing the parts [5]. Limited release is planned this quarter, full production in early 2027 [1][5]. *Chart: **Drone cleaning height jumped from about 150 feet to a 280-foot demo** Bar chart comparing drone cleaning working heights: Sherpa rated at about 150 feet, 180 feet in supported configurations, and 280 feet at the Monarch Casino tower with the HighLine rooftop pulley.* *Working height in feet. Rated height per DRONELIFE (October 2026); 180 ft per Lucid Bots' Sherpa page as cited by Colorado Tech Ledger (October 2026); 280 ft is the company-reported Monarch Casino job of late September 2026. [1][3][4]* ## The business under the demo Lucid Bots [raised a $20 million Series B in March](https://www.theautochannel.com/news/2026/03/25/1648986-lucid-bots-raises-20-million-series-b-to-accelerate-buildout.html), co-led by the venture firms Cubit Capital and Idea Fund Partners, bringing total funding to $34 million; the startup accelerator Y Combinator is a backer [3][6]. The model is equipment plus control: the operator brings the contract, Lucid supplies the tools and approves who may buy them [6]. Its network of more than 400 operators across 40-plus states has generated over $75 million of cleaning revenue, with nearly 1,000 robots deployed and [8,760 cumulative flight hours logged by mid-August](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/lucid-bots-launches-power-tether-183900717.html) [6][7]. The company says Sherpa cuts job time 2–5x, operators report payback in under two months, and 2025 revenue matched its first seven years combined [6]. ## Whose money, and what to watch Those traction figures are the company's own, and the deposit count is private. Nothing in the record yet shows window-washing crews working on ropes losing work, though founder and CEO Andrew Ashur, who started the company after watching window washers fight wind on a platform in college, says about one worker dies cleaning a building every four days [3]. Lucid Bots is private: the money in belongs to its venture backers, and no listed company is exposed. The store listing is the thing to watch. A published price and a rated height would turn 280 feet into a repeatable spec, and open mid-rise bids to operators who turn them down today [1][5]. ## Takeaway The HighLine rooftop pulley carried part of the hose that let a Sherpa drone wash 280 feet up a casino tower, roughly doubling drone cleaning height, but Lucid Bots is collecting $250 deposits before it publishes a price or a rated height. ## Sources 1. [PR Newswire via Morningstar, "Lucid Bots takes drone cleaning beyond 280 feet with new Sherpa HighLine rooftop pulley system", 1 October 2026](https://www.morningstar.com/news/pr-newswire/20261001cl61255/lucid-bots-takes-drone-cleaning-beyond-280-feet-with-new-sherpa-highline-rooftop-pulley-system) 2. [The Cleanzine, "Lucid Bots takes drone cleaning beyond 280ft with new Sherpa HighLine rooftop pulley system", 15 October 2026](https://www.thecleanzine.com/pages/24605/lucid_bots_takes_drone_cleaning_beyond_280ft_with_new_sherpa_highline_rooftop_pulley_system/) 3. [DRONELIFE, Jim Magill, "Lucid Bots Expands Its Drone Platform", 8 October 2026](https://dronelife.com/2026/10/08/lucid-bots-cleaning-drones-painting/) 4. [Colorado Tech Ledger, "Lucid Bots Reports 280-Foot Black Hawk Drone Cleaning, Opens $250 HighLine Reservations", 7 October 2026](https://coloradotechledger.com/articles/lucid-bots-reports-280-foot-black-hawk-drone-cleaning-opens-250-highline-reservations/) 5. [Lucid Bots store, "Refundable Reservation Deposit: Sherpa HighLine", accessed 4 November 2026](https://lucidbots.shop/products/sherpa-highline) 6. [PR Newswire via The Auto Channel, "Lucid Bots Raises $20 Million Series B to Accelerate the Buildout of America's Leading Exterior Cleaning Platform", 25 March 2026](https://www.theautochannel.com/news/2026/03/25/1648986-lucid-bots-raises-20-million-series-b-to-accelerate-buildout.html) 7. [PR Newswire via Yahoo Finance, "Lucid Bots Launches Power Tether, the Cleaning Drone Industry's First Ground-Powered Continuous Flight System", 1 September 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/lucid-bots-launches-power-tether-183900717.html) --- Lucid Bots washed a 23-story casino tower by drone and opened a $250 waiting list with no price on it — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/lucid-bots-washed-a-23-story-casino-tower-by-drone-and-opened-a-250-waiting-list-with-no-price-on-it