UltraBot: Autonomous Mobile Robot for Indoor UV-C Disinfection

TL;DR

UltraBot is an autonomous indoor UV-C disinfection robot designed to effectively reduce bacteria and viruses without chemicals, ensuring safety for humans and high disinfection efficiency demonstrated by a 94% bacterial reduction.

Contribution

The paper introduces UltraBot, a novel autonomous UV-C disinfection robot with advanced control systems and proven effectiveness in bacterial reduction, addressing safety and environmental concerns.

Findings

94% reduction in bacterial count after 10 minutes

Effective localization and trajectory planning for disinfection

Safe operation minimizing human exposure to UV-C

Abstract

The paper focuses on the development of the autonomous robot UltraBot to reduce COVID-19 transmission and other harmful bacteria and viruses. The motivation behind the research is to develop such a robot that is capable of performing disinfection tasks without the use of harmful sprays and chemicals that can leave residues, require airing the room afterward for a long time, and can cause the corrosion of the metal structures. UltraBot technology has the potential to offer the most optimal autonomous disinfection performance along with taking care of people, keeping them from getting under UV-C radiation. The paper highlights UltraBot's mechanical and electrical structures as well as low-level and high-level control systems. The conducted experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the robot localization module and optimal trajectories for UV-C disinfection. The results of UV-C disinfection performance revealed a decrease of the total bacterial count (TBC) by 94% on the distance of 2.8 meters from the robot after 10 minutes of UV-C irradiation.