With COVID-19 infecting so many people around the world, we all have surely become a bit of a germophobe (and that¡¯s a good thing in these dark times), not touching common surfaces, washing hands more often, among other things.?
But maintaining hygiene in a place like a hospital which is constantly crowded with people can get tricky. However, this robot could help bridge this gap.
The robot, developed by Shanghai-based Keenon Robotics, is designed specifically for coronaviruses. It uses a combination of UV light and liquid disinfectant spray to kill pathogens like COVID-19.
The robot is roughly as tall as a teenager and weighs a good 72 kilograms. While it looks nothing at all like a human, it can carry 1500 millilitres of disinfectant liquid that it disperses in the air, cleansing the surrounding area.?
It takes six hours to fully charge and can spray disinfectant for around eight hours -- as per company claims, while also not leaving any residue whatsoever.
Moreover, the robot is smart as it also collects data on the level of contamination in the air on its route to better deal with the disinfection process in future. It is designed to be only used indoors but can easily go up on ramps with an elevation of five degrees.
Keenon Robotics' international business development manager, Simi Wang said, ¡°It is specially made for coronavirus prevention. 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.¡±
The robot surely isn¡¯t cheap as each costs approximately $40,000 (or Rs 30 lakhs). Would you like a robot like this in a hospital near you? Let us know in the comments below.