Coronavirus: Robots use light beams to zap hospital viruses

[lucija2005]

Production has been accelerated and it now takes less than a day to make one robot at their facility in Odense, Denmark's third largest city and home to a growing robotics hub.
Glowing like light sabres, eight bulbs emit concentrated UV-C ultraviolet light.
This destroys bacteria, viruses and other harmful microbes by damaging their DNA and RNA, so they can't multiply.
It's also hazardous to humans, so we wait outside. The job is done in 10-20 minutes. Afterwards there's a smell, much like burned hair.
The robot was launched in early 2019, following six years of collaboration between parent firm, Blue Ocean Robotics and Odense University Hospital where Prof Kolmos has overseen infection control.
Costing $67,000 (£53,370) each, the robot was designed to reduce the likelihood of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) which can be costly to treat and cause loss of life.
Dr Lena Ciric, an associate professor at University College London and expert on molecular biology, agrees that UV disinfection robots can help fight coronavirus.
To be fully effective, UV needs to fall directly on a surface. If lightwaves are blocked by dirt or obstacles, such shadow areas won't be disinfected. Therefore manual cleaning is needed first.
The company has seen a surge in orders from Italy, Japan, Thailand and South Korea.
"There are not many good things to say about epidemics," says Professor Kolmus, but it has forced industry "to find new solutions".

source:https://www.robots.com/blogs/robots-helping-the-blind-to-navigate-the-world

[BADecker]

"Be careful with that thing. You could put somebody's eye out with it."

[tvbcof]

"Be careful with that thing. You could put somebody's eye out with it."

No need to worry about that:

  https://www.robots.com/blogs/robots-helping-the-blind-to-navigate-the-world

Much better to be blind than to have a coronavirus in your room.  Just ask your friendly virtual-neighborhood 'evidence based' and 'data driven' scientpriest.