Mr. Clean: Robotic Autonomous solution for disinfection and sanitation in pandemic and post-pandemic times
PAL Robotics
Mr. Clean is an innovative robotic solution for autonomous disinfection based on UV-C, which has been demonstrated to be good at removing bacteria and viruses with high effectiveness – above 99.95%. Traditional disinfection devices equipped with UV-C lights need to be driven, placed and operated by personnel who must move the equipment, warn people around to move out the area, activate it manually using timers and repeating the operation to move the equipment to all required positions to prevent having shadow areas, which is quite inefficient. Furthermore, personnel in charge of these operations are exposed to infected areas and to UV-C lighting which is harmful.
TIAGo Base is the Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) that is used as a platform to implement the Mr. Clean solution. The robot is able to transport raw material, goods or other equipment. The robot is also suitable to integrate a UV-C lights module on top of it in order to autonomously be transported through a given environment and perform disinfection of air and surfaces. Through this method, the microorganisms’ DNA such as bacteria, viruses and yeasts is disrupted and their nucleic acids are destroyed; inactivating their living cells since they are unable to perform vital functions. These microorganisms become harmless within seconds once exposed to the UV-C radiation.
Our robot is flexible and is ready to help in tackling the current pandemic situation and to keep high sanitation standards to prevent potential spread of future pandemic threats. TIAGo Base has been already used to create a prototype of a disinfection solution that has been tested in relevant and operational environments.
The project will focus on evolving the prototype solution to become a fully commercial solution that can be deployed in a heterogeneous set of indoor environments: hospitals, hotels, offices, public buildings, factories, etc.