Autonomous Robots Are Helping Kill Virus in Hospitals
Robots that can efficiently disinfect hospitals using UV light could slow Virus infections
HISTORY:
UVD Robots
UVD Robots ApS was founded in 2016 by Blue Ocean Robotics with the objective of global commercialising robotic based UV Disinfection solutions for hospitals. The incorporation of the company followed a Private Public Innovation project starting in 2014, where Blue Ocean Robotics and Odense University Hospital OUH in partnership with other hospitals in Denmark, developed the first prototype of the UV-Disinfection Robot, with the objective of preventing Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI’s) for the benefit of patients, hospital staff and associated healthcare costs.
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THE COMPANY:
UVD Robots is a Danish based company focused on the expansion of our business and distribution set-up on a global scale.
UVD Robots:
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The UVD Robot is used as part of the regular cleaning cycle, and aims at preventing and reducing the spread of infectious diseases, vira, bacteria, and other . The UVD Robot is 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.
UVD Robots philosophy is centred around integrating proven UV germicidal industrial solutions with new advanced robot technologies, creating innovative products helping the healthcare industry in the eradication of harmful pathogens and superbugs, thereby making healthcare environments safer and improving quality of care for hospitals and healthcare facilities around the world.
UVD Robots Aims: http://www.myrobostation.com/
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UVD Robot is designed to be used as part of the hospital’s regular cleaning process 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, and always gives an accurate repeated process. Furthermore, it is user friendly and is designed to be operated by nursing staff and cleaning operatives. The UVD Robot has been clinically tested and verified at Odense University Hospital and Danish Technological institute. It has also been tested by the UK independent microbiological laboratories, Melbec Microbiology.
The advantages of the UVD Robot over existing manual systems is the incorporated, fully autonomous technology, allowing the robot to move position without human interaction, drastically reducing shadow areas. Increased mobility ensures closer
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proximity to all high touch surfaces, increasing the intensity of the UV-C light.
Advanced Technology Of UVD Robots: UVD Robots advanced technology gives the ability to disinfect thousands of critical surfaces on a massive scale, absolutely anywhere, at any time, without creating extra work for cleaning operatives. The UVD Robot is able to operate over thousands of sq. metres, totally autonomously, manoeuvring around obstacles that cause shadows and getting within 1 metre distance from all high touch surfaces where the UV-C light is most effective. Even when moving between positions at 10 centimetres per second, the UVD Robot is still disinfecting medium and low touch surfaces as is passes by. The laws of physics govern UV-C light. Shadowing and distance to surface have limitations. This is not the case for the UVD Robot, as it can reposition itself to minimise shadow and reduce the radiation distance. When the disinfection process is complete the robot will compile a comprehensive disinfection report for your records. In March 2019, a leading NHS Hospital performed something never seen in infection control – the full disinfection of a 2,000 m2 Outpatient Oncology department in a staggering 90 minutes. Even more impressive was the fact that this disinfection was carried out with zero human interaction. In comparison, two weeks previous, the very same disinfection process was carried out by staff using a manual UV-C system. This had taken up to 20 hours of personnel time. The disinfection plan with the UVD Robot was an identical copy of http://www.myrobostation.com/
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the manual version, except that unlike the manual version, the UVD Robot continued to disinfect whilst moving position.
UVD Robots spent four years developing a robotic UV disinfection system, which it started selling in 2018. The robot consists of a mobile base equipped with multiple lidar sensors and an array of UV lamps mounted on top. To deploy a robot, you drive it around once using a computer. The robot scans the environment using its lidars and creates a digital map. After that, the robot relies on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) to navigate, and it operates completely on its own. It’ll travel from its charging station, through hallways, up and down elevators if necessary, and perform the disinfection without human intervention before returning to recharge. For safety, the robot operates when people are not around, using its sensors to detect motion and shutting the UV lights off if a person enters the area. http://www.myrobostation.com/
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It takes 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. The process is more consistent than a human cleaning since the robot follows the same path each time, and its autonomy means that human staff can be freed up to do more interesting tasks, like interacting with patients. Originally, the robots were developed to address hospital acquired infections, which are a significant problem globally.between 5 and 10 percent of hospital patients worldwide will acquire a new infection while in the hospital, and tens of thousands of people die from these infections every year. The goal of the UVD robots was to help hospitals prevent these infections in the first place.
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