Disinfection Robots Fight COVID-19 Viruses

According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the demand for the disinfection robot UVD from the Danish manufacturer Blue Ocean Robotics has increased significantly since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. Chinese hospitals ordered more than 2,000 UVD robots. They were deployed in Wuhan, the home of the global pandemic. The robots are currently used in more than 40 countries - in Asia, Europe and North America.

UV-C light kills viruses and bacteria

The Danish robot drives autonomously through operating theaters and patient rooms and irradiates all critical surfaces with the optimal amount of UV-C light to kill viruses and bacteria. The more intensively the robot irradiates a surface, the more harmful microorganisms are destroyed. 99.99% of all viruses and bacteria in a typical patient room are killed within 10 minutes.

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For safety reasons, the devices in the rooms work independently and switch off the UV-C light automatically as soon as someone enters the room. The collaborative robot can be used in a wide variety of rooms - not just in hospitals. The technology also works in offices, shopping centers, schools, airports and production facilities.

Distribute hospital material without contact

In addition to disinfection tasks - such as those carried out by the UVD robot - robots help distribute hospital material safely in quarantine zones without human contact, such as the mobile robot Phollower from Photoneo. The robot is already being used successfully in the Slovenian Kosice-Saca hospital:

Robot disinfects 36,000 m² per hour

Siemens and Aucma have also developed an intelligent disinfection robot that will soon be used in the fight against the Corona virus and other viruses in hospitals. The robot powered by a lithium battery with two atomizing guns can disinfect an area of 20,000 to 36,000 m² per hour. A 360-degree camera platform on the top transmits image data and information in real time.

In conjunction with an image recognition algorithm, the user can control the affected areas by remote control. In this way, the spread of infectious diseases can be prevented at low cost. So that the robot can also be used on different surfaces without problems and can better overcome obstacles, inclines and slopes, the team decided on a crawler track instead of wheels.

Medical robots are already forming their own well-established service robot market with considerable growth potential. Sales of medical robots rose by 50% to 5,100 units in 2018. This emerges from the World Robotics report presented by the IFR.