Coronavirus has claimed over half a million precious lives since the virus first broke out from Wuhan, China in December 2019. With thousands of people admitted to the hospital, how do we ensure the health and safety of healthcare workers and patients and prevent the spread of coronavirus throughout the hospitals? That’s where UV disinfection autonomous robot comes in.
UV robots have been around for some time now. They use UV light to disinfect surfaces that have coronavirus on them. UV robot is not a cure for the virus, but it is a major step forward in preventing transmission. One of the leading UV robots is UVD Robots developed by a small Danish startup company called Blue Ocean Robotics.
We wrote about Blue Ocean Robotics back in December 2019 way before the coronavirus became a pandemic disease. Their UVD Robot pretty much disinfects anything you point them at—each robot is a mobile array of powerful short wavelength ultraviolet-C (UVC) lights that emit enough energy to literally breaking down the DNA or RNA of any microorganisms including coronavirus. The robots are able to disinfect patient rooms and operating theaters in hospitals.
Back in February, before people in Europe and the U.S. become fully aware of the deadly virus, China bought an Army of UVD Robots to fight coronavirus infection in its hospitals without telling the rest of the world. Below is a tweet on February 26 with Blue Ocean Robotics announcing the order from China.
‘China Buys an Army of UVD Robots to fight Coronavirus Infection’https://t.co/T11sNecss8 pic.twitter.com/lmQ2cdEj8C
— UVD Robots (@UVDRobots) February 26, 2020
The UVD robot is also used as part of the regular cleaning cycle, and aims at preventing and reducing the spread of infectious diseases, vira, bacteria, and other types of harmful organic microorganisms in the environment by breaking down their DNA-structure. The robot is safe, reliable and eliminates human error.
According to Blue Ocean Robotics, its takes anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes to disinfect a typical room, with the robot spending 1 or 2 minutes in five or six different positions around the room to maximize the number of surfaces that it disinfects. The robot’s UV array emits 20 joules per square meter per second (at 1 meter distance) of 254-nanometer light, which will utterly wreck 99.99 percent of germs in just a few minutes without the robot having to do anything more complicated than just sit there.
Below is a video of UVD robot in action.
Founded in 2013 by Claus Lenz, Claus Risager, John Erland Østergaard, Lennart Karlsson, and Thorsten Röder, Blue Ocean Robotics develops, produces and sells professional service robots primarily in healthcare, hospitality, construction and agriculture. Its portfolio of robots includes such brands as Beam Robots, a mobile telepresence robot for communication, social inclusion and CO2 reductions; UVD Robots, a mobile robot for disinfection; PTR Robots, a mobile robot for safe patient handling and rehabilitation; as well as others.
