UVD Disinfection Robot
2022
ESG ACTION AWARD
Winner
DNgroup
Designers / Creators / Authors / Leaders
Frederick Rickmann, Gustavo Urruth Kemmerich and Blue Ocean Robotics Engineering
Environmental:
The UVD Disinfection Robot has been described as a quantum leap in robots that can disinfect against viruses and bacteria in the air and on surfaces using UV-C light. The new robot navigates itself autonomously for disinfecting hospitals, airports, hotels, shopping malls, cruise ships, company offices and many other environments which need to be free of infections for public safety.
The environmental impact of the UVD Robot is also a quantum leap in the field of disinfection. Previously disinfection has carried out using toxic and semi-toxic chemicals and cleaning agents. These need to be handled with great care by the staff, but in disposal these toxic disinfection agents are extremely harmful to the drainage system, waste systems and the environment.
Social:
UV-C radiation can be harmful for people and for that reason, the robot is equipped with the most advanced sensors and user control system. In use this means that the UVD robots can only operate in enclosed spaces and out of the range of staff and patients. While this can seem to be a negative feature of the robot, the positive aspect is that the UVD robot can disinfect autonomously, so freeing up staff for more human treatment and more meaningful tasks than just cleaning. Experience has shown that by replacing labour-intense onerous tasks with human contact and responsible tasks, the perceived job quality of the staff is greatly optimised.
Corporate Governance:
Originally the design work on developing the UVD Robot started in 2019 and production came online in the middle of 2020. This turned out to be perfect timing to deal with the Covid 19 pandemic. This, the world's most advanced UVD Robot, was developed by Blue Ocean Robotics in Odense, Denmark with Frederick Rickmann from DNgroup.
