A Chinese company has unveiled a $40,000 (£32,650) hospital robot that uses a combination of UV light and liquid disinfectant spray to kill coronavirus pathogens.
The fully-automated robot is armed with four groups of short-wave ultraviolet germ-killing lamps and five atomising disinfectant liquid spraying nozzles on its top.
Standing at 4.4 feet (1.4 metres) tall, the droid can carry 1500 millilitres of disinfectant liquid and takes six hours to fully charge.
The disinfection droid has been designed by the Shanghai, China-based Keenon Robotics Company, which also produces robots for food delivery and advertising.
‘It is specially made for coronavirus prevention,’ explained Keenon Robotics’ international business development manager, Simi Wang.
‘After the coronavirus outbreak, we got lots of requests from hospitals to use our robots for delivering meals, medicines and documents.’
‘This is why we come up with the idea of combining UV and medical sprays to do the disinfection. ‘
According to Chinese regulations to fight COVID-19, UV light irradiation and hydrogen peroxide -based spray disinfection should be done twice daily, Keenon Robotics said.
‘The quotation is 40,000 USD for each,’ Ms Wang added.
The robot is designed to operate indoors on smooth floors and can climb slopes of up to around 5 degrees.
It is capable of spraying disinfectant for up to 8 hours in one go — and employs a process that is safe and leaves no residue, Keenon Robotics claim.
As the robot goes about its task, it also collects data on the route it takes and the disinfection process for future reference.
DISINFECTION ROBOT: STATS
Pictured, the disinfection robot with a man for scale
Size: 19.7×19.7×53 inches
Weight: 154 lbs
Disinfection liquid capacity: 1500 ml
Max. speed: 2.2 mph
Battery: 48 V, 8 hour life
Lifespan: 5–8 years
Time to full charge: 6 hours
Working environment: indoor
Keenon Robotics has also been providing medical facilities with its delivery robots — adapting the T1 design to include medical sprayers.
‘So far we’ve donated 100 T1 and T5 robots robots domestically. More than 75 hospitals in China are now using our robots against COVID-19,’ Ms Wang told MailOnline.
‘We are also shipping our robots to more than 10 countries all over the world.’
Source: dailymail
