In the article, “Meet Violet, the Robot That Can Kill the COVID-19 Virus,” it talks about robots helping the people during the coronavirus. The pandemic has killed thousands, made millions of people sick, and forced even more to deal craziness of closures and lockdowns. Stevie, who is a 4-foot 7-inch tall robot whose function is to cure loneliness. It has been programmed to tell stories, call bingo numbers, lead sing-alongs, and other activities.
The engineers have also worked closely with staff to understand what other functions could be added to the robot to boost patients’ safety. A long time before the virus started, the team had already started exploring whether Stevie might be able to cure infections too. They have been talking about whether it’s possible to use an ultraviolet light feature that can be powerful enough to kill harmful germs, but safe to be used by people. Ultraviolet lights between 200 and 280 nanometers, or UVC light, causes DNA to either change shape, or act like molecular scissors.
The Stevie robot already had sensors allowing it to navigate and stop by itself when it detects a person. A light source that automatically shuts down when it detects a motion nearby could be a useful feature. Then, when they confirmed the first case in the country, the team had data on how effective UVC light was, and knew how to make a lightweight, nimble robot that could move around humans in a busy places. Akara has focused on making Violet compact enough to be able to work in crowded spaces that are hard to clean; bathrooms, waiting areas, and small places in public transit.
The team recently tested the robot. It typically takes a person 15 minutes to clean the room with wipes and then another 30 to 60 minutes for the chemicals to dry, which means that the room can only take care of about one patient an hour. Violet has been able to get the job done in 15 minutes, which is way faster. Akara is now looking to raise money to build an even more advanced prototype that can be tested in different settings.