Disinfecting robots are becoming a key part of returning to offices
Cleanliness is one of the most important things during any pandemic. Mindful attitudes toward germs, as well as the prevalence of masks and hand sanitizers, will likely not disappear even after vaccines are widely distributed. For robotics developers, helping employees and customers trust the workplace through new occupational health and safety tools has become an important business priority for 2021.
The clearest example is the growth in disinfecting robots, which until 2020 were a niche product, mainly tied to the healthcare market. Now a wide range of companies (from offices to warehouses and grocery stores) are investing in disinfection technology as a crucial component of workplace safety.
Disinfecting robots come in various types, including floor-washing robots and other cleaning devices. Ultraviolet has emerged as developers' favorite disinfection method, which is not surprising given how easily the technology adapts to existing automation platforms.
Autonomous mobile robots, which began spreading in enterprises over the last decade, especially for loading, unloading and warehouse operations, can easily be adapted for UV disinfection technologies. To work effectively, they only need to be close to target surfaces. This means existing mobile robotics technology portfolios can be used in new disinfection products without radical design changes.
LG, a mobile robotics manufacturer, presented a disinfecting robot at the end of 2020. The robot is equipped with UV lamps on its sides with emission wavelengths from 100 to 280 nm, which is effective for destroying microbes. The 160 cm tall device has an autonomous driving system, so it can overcome obstacles.
LG has placed robots in locations such as hotels, hospitals and schools, where there are many separate and independent spaces. The company said the bots will help reduce the burden on medical workers at a time when disinfection matters more than ever.
Fetch Robotics, a leader in autonomous mobile robots, quickly entered the market by introducing its model in summer 2020. The bot, called SmartGuardUV, uses pulsed UV lamp technology and adds advanced disinfection reporting via the Piedmont 4Site cloud analytics platform.
The result is a fully autonomous, broad-spectrum UV disinfection robot that reportedly destroys up to 99.9% of viruses and bacteria using UV-C, UV-B and UV-A, and also reports disinfection results.
“Facilities best prepared to protect workers and customers from coronavirus are taking extreme precautions when it comes to sanitation and trust automated solutions that can be deployed at any time. Companies of all sizes recognize the need for reliable sanitation procedures, and SmartGuardUV provides such reliable protection at any time of day without distracting employees from their existing work duties”
Ava Robotics, which spun out of iRobot, is following this trajectory, building on automation technology first developed for its telepresence robots. The company introduced a new disinfecting robot that can treat 836 m² per hour and operates fully autonomously.
In summer 2020, Ava, in partnership with MIT CSAIL, developed a disinfecting robot to help protect visitors to a food bank in Boston. The new robot is a commercial product intended for use in a variety of professional settings.
“We initially worked with Ava when they spun out of iRobot with telepresence robots. Now, with new safety expectations, we are excited to launch the UV robot in our Boston Worklife space to see how it can help provide greater peace of mind for our customers and our employees who want to return to a safe work environment”
The robots were tested at Boston-based Steelcase, as well as at organizations such as Boston City Hall. Ava's UV robots are expected to become widespread and fully available for purchase before the end of 2021. This shows how quickly the company has been able to grow through hardware development.
“Thanks to such timely expansion of our technology, we are bringing an intelligent, autonomously mobile UV disinfection robot to a market that badly needs it. Companies must instill confidence in employees, customers, and really everyone who comes to their workplace that everything possible is being done for their safety and health”
The category of these technologies is still new, so sales figures are hard to predict. However, judging by the rapid development, technology firms building disinfecting robots sense a window of real opportunity. This may well mean that handing coffee to a new robot colleague is another adjustment awaiting all of us in the pandemic era.
