If there are any “benefits” to society-wide challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, one is surely that such crises generally lead to demonstrations of the adage, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
To wit, preventing the spread of infection has been a top concern of healthcare providers and policymakers from the beginning of the pandemic, and in recent months a team of researchers with Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Europe’s largest organization for applied research and development services, has been developing AI and robotic technologies capable of disinfecting potentially contaminated surfaces and automating the transport of essential items.
According to Dr. Birgit Graf of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA), the “primary goal of the Mobile Disinfection research project is to minimize the spread of infection, whether this is the coronavirus or any other germs or bacteria that are harmful to humans. One way to do this is by regularly disinfecting surfaces that many people touch, such as light switches, elevator buttons or door handles. . . Two service robots will be developed that make it possible to disinfect potentially contaminated surfaces in buildings and means of transportation as needed. The partners will also look into developments which may help to automate the transport of materials in clinics and thus counteract the spread of germs by the staff.”
The benefit of using robots, Dr. Graf explained, is they “can reduce the risk of infection among cleaning staff while at the same time ensuring that cleaning is carried out reliably and traceably. Because robots are capable of performing continuous cleaning and disinfection operations, even during the night, cleaning can be carried out more frequently and consistently than with manual operation. Using robots also helps to address the increasing lack of staff which cleaning service providers currently have to face.”
The process involves training a robot before its first usage in a new environment by driving it “around to enable it to automatically register a map of its future working space. The robot also recognizes all the door handles, light switches and other high-touch surfaces which need to be cleaned, as well as the material they are made of. Based on this information, the robot can plan independently all the necessary cleaning sequences.”
In addition to an array of uses in the fight against COVID-19, Dr. Graf said, the research team sees “potential in robots for telehealth applications: they make it possible to maintain remote contact with family or even doctors without the risk of spreading infection.”