News Robot Uses UV Light to Fight COVID-19 in Schools, Offices

[Admin]

UBTech’s Adibot is programmed to disinfect rooms on its own.

Robot Uses UV Light to Fight COVID-19 in Schools, Offices : Read more

 

[mac_angel]

I was confused why this wasn't being done months ago.
I had a mold problem in our home last summer. Looked into how to clear it up, and filters. Found a bunch of filters that had ION and/or UV-C lights. Googled that stuff, found UV-C lights pretty much kill all DNA. Looked up on Amazon, found some on there, and some that had UV-C plus Ozone. More Google, ended up picking up a couple of them. It didn't take a whole lot to look it up and see how much it could do for the whole pandemic. Hang them up and turn them on at night. In schools, in doctor's offices, pretty much anywhere, especially places that have high traffic. They may not be 100%, but that, plus other measures, every little bit counts. And they aren't that expensive.
You'll also find on Amazon all kinds of UV-C disinfectant stuff for your cell phones and other items. They've been around for a while now.

 

[jkflipflop98]

So it's a bulked-up Roomba with some UV lights on the top. For $100k.

I've got a new design idea to work on. . .

 

[velocityg4]

Meanwhile my grocery store has a UV light setup in the shopping cart area. Which just blasts the carts and everyone getting a cart with UV light.

 

[Adz_au]

What about using far-UVC light at 222 nanometers ??
Recent studies have been shown Far-UVC to be as efficient as conventional germicidal UV light in killing microorganisms while also suggesting that these wavelengths do not cause the human health issues associated with direct exposure to conventional germicidal UV light.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-67211-2

 

[Adz_au]

Meanwhile my grocery store has a UV light setup in the shopping cart area. Which just blasts the carts and everyone getting a cart with UV light.

That's concerning. The amount of UV-C you need to be effective at killing virus cell membranes is about 20,000 joules per metre squared, and you probably aren’t going to get that in an e-Bay type hand-held device, however, a fixed high power bulb like used in hospital cleaning is dangerous.

UV-C 254 nm light? (I hope not) or just an ordinary "black-light" normally seen in a night-club which is UV-A ~365nm range.
They are very different in effect on biological organisms.

If it's the former UV-C 254 Germicidal type, it's dangerous to humans and certainly should be avoided.
They also cause ozone gas to be created which is irritating to soft lung tissues and can cause lung inflammation.
You see these lights deployed in hospitals with operators wearing full hazmat gear to block the rays.
No way are they allowed to have patients in the room when those are doing their thing.

If it's just a night-club UV-A lamp, at most it will make your fluorescent clothes glow however, high-powered UV-A prolonged exposure should preferably be avoided. We are talking the nasty "tanning bed" power.
Sunlight also has UV light ranges and causes premature skin ageing and skin cancer due to harmful UV-B and mainly UV-A at high intensity.

Just for info, most to almost all UV-C is blocked by our atmosphere however, it is the most dangerous form of light due to the high-energy yield. It is known as an ionising radiation due to its ability to detach electrons out of orbit from around atoms and molecules much like X-Rays. UV-B also can do this. It is the main cause of skin cancer and so is high-powered UV-A but, you need a lot of it.
That being said, even although UV light carries enough energy to damage eyes, the Far-UVC 222 nm wavelength appears to not penetrate the tear layer present on the eye or the outer dead skin layer but it's still considered "ionising"

 

[velocityg4]

That's concerning. The amount of UV-C you need to be effective at killing virus cell membranes is about 20,000 joules per metre squared, and you probably aren’t going to get that in an e-Bay type hand-held device, however, a fixed high power bulb like used in hospital cleaning is dangerous.

UV-C 254 nm light? (I hope not) or just an ordinary "black-light" normally seen in a night-club which is UV-A ~365nm range.
They are very different in effect on biological organisms.

If it's the former UV-C 254 Germicidal type, it's dangerous to humans and certainly should be avoided.
They also cause ozone gas to be created which is irritating to soft lung tissues and can cause lung inflammation.
You see these lights deployed in hospitals with operators wearing full hazmat gear to block the rays.
No way are they allowed to have patients in the room when those are doing their thing.

If it's just a night-club UV-A lamp, at most it will make your fluorescent clothes glow however, high-powered UV-A prolonged exposure should preferably be avoided. We are talking the nasty "tanning bed" power.
Sunlight also has UV light ranges and causes premature skin ageing and skin cancer due to harmful UV-B and mainly UV-A at high intensity.

Just for info, most to almost all UV-C is blocked by our atmosphere however, it is the most dangerous form of light due to the high-energy yield. It is known as an ionising radiation due to its ability to detach electrons out of orbit from around atoms and molecules much like X-Rays. UV-B also can do this. It is the main cause of skin cancer and so is high-powered UV-A but, you need a lot of it.
That being said, even although UV light carries enough energy to damage eyes, the Far-UVC 222 nm wavelength appears to not penetrate the tear layer present on the eye or the outer dead skin layer but it's still considered "ionising"

It's the light cyan not purple UV light. So, I assume it is UV-C at the store. As I have regular UV-A lights for retr0brighting. It's multiple 4ft tubes. So, I'd say it's pretty strong. At least the carts should be sanitary.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Does it run around saying exterminate!exterminate! And resistance is futile

View: https://youtu.be/mxD-5z_xHBU

 

[cryoburner]

Both the robots and the sign itself have human detection capabilities they can use to see if a person enters the line of fire and direct an ultraviolet laser beam into their eyes with surgical precision to discourage future re-entry.

Interesting...

So it's a bulked-up Roomba with some UV lights on the top. For $100k.

I've got a new design idea to work on. . .

Actually, according the article it's just $40,000 for this model, or 20,000 for the version without the Roomba. For the kind of businesses that would use these, that's probably not too bad, especially if they can disinfect a room significantly faster and at a lower cost than people hired for that purpose. And while you could probably just rig together several fluorescent light fixtures on a cart and outfit them with UV lamps and a remote power switch at a tiny fraction of the cost, the setup would require greater supervision and training to ensure that people are not entering the room while it's in operation. Many businesses would probably want those additional safety shutoff and monitoring features for additional peace of mind that someone isn't going to enter the room or improperly run the device in a room full of people, who might claim being harmed by it, potentially costing them significantly more.

...They also cause ozone gas to be created which is irritating to soft lung tissues and can cause lung inflammation.
You see these lights deployed in hospitals with operators wearing full hazmat gear to block the rays...

Even if the light were left on 24/7, any ozone gas created by it probably wouldn't be any concern in a large building like a supermarket, especially near an entrance with lots of fresh airflow. If anything, fumes from isopropyl alcohol would likely be more harmful.

And while people operating such equipment in hospitals might wear lots of protective equipment, they would also likely be getting exposed to a lot more over time than a customer briefly spending time near one.

I agree that lighting a shopping cart area with a UV germicidal light probably isn't a good idea though, since at least some employees may be getting exposed to more UVC light than they probably should. And if it's continuously on, it might even damage plastic and rubber parts of the shopping carts.

 

[suntech]

What about using far-UVC light at 222 nanometers ??
Recent studies have been shown Far-UVC to be as efficient as conventional germicidal UV light in killing microorganisms while also suggesting that these wavelengths do not cause the human health issues associated with direct exposure to conventional germicidal UV light.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-67211-2

No, there is still a doubt that if people can work under the exposure of 222nm uvc light all days, it has still to be proved the long-term effect of 222nm uvc light to people even if it can penetrate into human skin and the layer of eyes. As USHIO( a famous America maufacturer of 222nm uvc light) studies show, people are not allowed to receive 22mj 222nm uvc light per day.

 

[suntech]

I still agree that 222nm far uvc light is safe for human disinfection under the situation that you don't receive 22mj/day, if you are interested in 222nm far uvc light, click here to know more: https://www.suntechleds.com/far-uvc...ar-uvc-tube/far-uvc-222nm-led-tube-light.html