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The cleanliness of the surfaces will be improved with technology as Singapore prepares to deal with Covid-19 in the long term.
Disinfection robots using electrostatically charged aerosols and ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light will soon be deployed in public places, which will help lighten the burden on cleaners and also make disinfection more comprehensive and sustainable.
The semi-autonomous robot, which can quickly disinfect large surfaces, is called the eXtreme Disinfection roBot, or XDBot, and was designed and built in six weeks by a team of eight people from Nanyang University of Technology (NTU).
Professor Chen I-Ming, who leads the team, is also the founder of the startups Transforma Robotics and Hand Plus Robotics.
The idea was discussed sometime in February, after Singapore moved its response to the coronavirus outbreak to code orange. The robot can be controlled wirelessly via a laptop or tablet and uses electrostatically charged sprays, rather than conventional pressure sprays.
Conventional sprays are not directional, they spray in all directions. The electrostatically charged aerosols will go to the surfaces in the way that the opposite poles of the magnets attract each other, allowing them to wrap and enclose the entire surface of the object, especially in hidden places.
This allows an even distribution of the disinfectant on the surface. Nozzle size and pressure can also be adjusted.
The XDBot has a robotic arm with six degrees of freedom, which means it can mimic human movement to reach uncomfortable places, such as under tables and beds, as well as door knobs, tables, and light switches.
The researchers also plan to conduct public tests for the robot once the switch period ends and they can return to NTU to work on it.
“The need for surface disinfection and cleaning will spread even after the virus has peaked and the numbers have dropped,” Chen told The Straits Times.
“With so many foreign workers involved in the cleaning industry, we hope this will help alleviate the labor shortage, protect frontline cleaning staff who come in contact with those surfaces, and make their job easier.”
Manual cleaning could also introduce the possibility of cross-contamination and is subject to human error, where cleaners can lose a place, Professor Chen added.
Meanwhile, local robotic technology firm PBA Group has designed a disinfectant robot that uses ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light. This will soon be implemented in public areas.
Called Sunburst UV Desinfecting Mobile Robot (Sunburst UV Bot), it emits powerful UV-C rays that can decontaminate the environment by tearing DNA strands from the virus. It moves autonomously and is guided by light detection and range sensors. When the power is low, the robot can also navigate by itself to its charging station. It can run for about 2.5 hours on a charge.
UV-C light kills about 99 percent of bacteria and has been clinically shown to kill viruses.
Since the virus droplets are so fine that they can be suspended and remain in the air for several hours, disinfecting surfaces especially using methods such as manual cleaning and spraying disinfectant solutions will pale in comparison to disinfection with UV-C light.
The robot has been shown to kill other viruses very similar to the coronavirus, such as those behind the Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome.
The robot will move to a designated checkpoint in a room, stop and emit UV-C light for a period, around 10-20 minutes, depending on the size of the area, before moving on to the next checkpoint. It is around 1.7m to 2m tall with the UV module attached.
This robot is part of the PBA Group’s fleet of intelligent autonomous mobile robots, which use camera data, integrated sensors and software to detect, navigate and adapt to the environment. These data are collected from the hundreds of robots already deployed in the field since 1987.
“This technology initiative is one of the ways the PBA Group helps Singapore fight the pandemic, and it is all part of our broader effort to fight Covid-19 as we seek to continue harnessing our technology and resources for good,” said the group’s executive director. Derrick Yap.
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