Autonomous ground robots could help fight the pandemic by sterilizing areas with ultraviolet light, researchers say.
The new UVBot is designed to sterilize common areas such as schools, offices and public transportation in an easy, low-cost manner to curb the spread of the pandemic. Its designers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign note the robot can be built for under $1,000 from easily accessible objects.
“Cleaning a building top-to-bottom is a huge undertaking that requires time, money and resources, and our UVBot would make it possible for organizations to clean their buildings without huge amounts of time, money, or resources,” said university spokeswoman Veronica Severini.
Specifically, UVBot is made from a Roomba robot, a UV lamp, and 3D-printed parts. It can be remotely controlled by a mobile app over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It can also be programmed to autonomously clean many different types of spaces, and record and create a library of rooms. Users can therefore avoid exposure to both UV light and the virus.
The researchers tested UVBot against Tulane virus, an RNA virus similar to SARS-CoV-2, the contagion behind the current global pandemic. Their experiments helped pinpoint the amount of UV exposure time and distance needed for 99 percent virus inactivation.
To make UVBot as widely available as possible, the scientists are making plans for the robot open source via Github. They have also filed a provisional patent for the machine.
“We are already planning improvements to the UVBot, such as better collision detection, autonomous detection to shut off UV light when a human is detected and software to support multiple UVBots operating on the same Wi-Fi network,” Severini said. “We are also looking into another UV source that is safe for humans.”
The pandemic has spurred a number of robotic solutions. For instance, scientists in Singapore have developed a disinfection robot that uses a robotic arm to spray disinfectant onto surfaces. This eXtreme Disinfection roBOT (XDBOT) can be wirelessly controlled via a laptop or tablet from a distance of up to 30 meters, for potential use in childcare centers, hospitals, nursing homes and shopping malls.
