Disinfectant Robot
The deadliest virus COVID19 brings up many unwanted and unfortunate circumstances to the world which then treated by wash your hands, keep away from large groups of people, stay home when sick, avoid travel when possible, and different other strategies. At the top of the list, to prevent t
2025-06-28 16:32:10 - Adil Khan
Disinfectant Robot
Project Area of Specialization Biomedical EngineeringProject SummaryThe deadliest virus COVID19 brings up many unwanted and unfortunate circumstances to the world which then treated by wash your hands, keep away from large groups of people, stay home when sick, avoid travel when possible, and different other strategies. At the top of the list, to prevent the spread of coronavirus (and everything else) through hospitals, keeping surfaces disinfected is incredibly important, but it’s also dirty, dull, and dangerous. And that’s why it’s an ideal task for autonomous robots.
Ultraviolet Germicidal Robot (UVGI Robot) is a teleoperated robot equipped with a UV light system. The system contains a moving robot vehicle and a ground station controller (GCS). The operator can control the robot using the joystick of the ground station controller (GCS) while observing the camera feed of the robot. The robot can disinfect and kill diseases, viruses, bacteria, and other types of harmful organic microorganisms in the environment, with ultraviolet light, by breaking down their DNA-structure. Currently, several countries have tested these robots successfully to disinfect their hospitals, public transports, office spaces, and other public places. We have implemented this UV robot in a cost-effective way to expand the disinfection process to public places. The alternative and the cheapest method of spraying the disinfectant has avoided here because the most common and popular method to disinfect public places is to spray disinfectant liquids which are 70% alcohol-based liquids. Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that it is really harmful to use disinfectant liquids regularly in public places. This can cause problems in the respiratory system due to their strong scent, cause skin irritation, and may lead to unbalances in the environment. Further, this method is associated with a huge material and labor cost on a daily basis. This UV comes up with different advantages, one-time cost, can be used to disinfect surfaces, medical suits, medical masks, and other medical equipment. Reduce the disinfection time by 60% when compared to liquid-based disinfection methods. One operator can cover a large area. Some general applications will be the ability of the system to use in crowd areas, ability to use in hospitals, shows effectiveness with the shaded areas where normal disinfectant spraying can't cover.
Project ObjectivesThe objective of this project is to provide our hospitals with a UV Disinfectant Robot which is essential for, the top of the list of the places to avoid right now are hospitals because that’s where all the really sick people go. But for healthcare workers, and the sick people themselves, there’s really no other option. To prevent the spread of coronavirus (and everything else) through hospitals, keeping surfaces disinfected is incredibly important, but it’s also dirty, dull, and dangerous. And that’s why it’s an ideal task for autonomous robots to clean the environment and it safe for both doctors, other staff, and the patients. The normal UV disinfectant robot costs around 9lacs or higher as available in the local or international market which is not affordable to many to have it as a disinfectant at requiring spots however our UVGI Robot will be very cost-effective and give the desired results with effective cleaning of the environment by 99.99%.
Project Implementation MethodThe project implementation will be done in a number of steps, starting from Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) which is a disinfection method that uses short-wavelength ultraviolet (ultraviolet C or UVC) light to kill or inactivate microorganisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA, leaving them unable to perform vital cellular functions. UVC is absorbed by RNA and DNA bases and can cause the photochemical fusion of two adjacent pyrimidines into covalently linked dimers, which then become non-pairing bases. UVGI is used in a variety of applications, such as food, air, and water purification. UVGI can be used to prevent the spread of certain infectious diseases. Low-pressure mercury (Hg) discharge lamps and LEDs are commonly used in UVGI applications and emit shortwave ultraviolet-C (100–280 nanometer) radiation, primarily at 254 nm. After successful testing, the functionality starts and we have divided the whole body (the UV disinfectant robot) into 3 parts, the ground vehicle, the UV light tower, and the ground station controller. A video system will be installed which is mainly used in drones to get the bird's eye view. In our case using this system makes it easy to get the video feed from the robot without any programming or soldering components. The robot has a camera and a video transmitter. The building of the ground vehicle will be constructed with steel box bars. We will work to build the electronic control system, which will include the UV switch, robot arming switch, moving commands, and left/right turning command. To turn on the lights, to convert the 12V power to 220AC an inverter circuit will be used here. The next step will be the building of the UV light tower and ground control station (GCS) which will use an RC Transmitter with a joystick. A separate power supply will be used for the transmitter.
Benefits of the ProjectThe UVGI Robot is the best and reasonable solution in these circumstances and is easily affordable as compared to the market value which costs more than 9 lacs or more.
In hospital environments, UV light is helpful to disinfect high-touch surfaces within a very short time. But the effectiveness of the UV light for medical equipment and drugs should be considered in this scenario. Medical equipment with plastic enclosures is made out of hard plastics as they undergo radiation treatment during the manufacturing process. Further, there are no proven effects for the effectiveness of the UV light for the drugs stored in hospitals. Further, all stainless steel medical equipment and N95 masks can be sterilized using the same device. The system shows effectiveness in shaded areas, ultraviolet light reflects from surfaces as same as the visible lights. Therefore, the areas which do not get the direct UV light, get the reflected UV light. However, heavily covered or shaded areas do not get effective UV light. These areas do not get disinfected with disinfection liquids based methods too.
Technical Details of Final DeliverableThe overall system is a bit complex as we have added some functionalities and safety features to comply with the industry standards. Before explaining the implementation procedure, it is good to have an understanding of how the system works. The robot has 3 main components.
1. The ground vehicle: This part will be moved by two wheels powered by DC geared motors. There are two caster wheels at the front and the back to maintain the balance. We will place the electronic control system and the battery, which is a 12V 35Ah Lead Acid battery inside the ground vehicle. Arduino Mega will be powered with the main battery through a voltage regulator module to reduce the voltage from 12V to 5V. A four-channel RC radio receiver with PWM outputs are connected to the Mega board. Motors will be driven through a dual-channel H bridge motor driver which is connected to the Arduino board. An inverter is connected between the UV lights and the battery and controlled using a relay switch connected to the Arduino board.
2. The UV Bulbs Tower: We will be using Fluorescent UV bulbs which require a separate electronic ballast unit to power up the bulb. The light tower contains 6 UV bulbs that are placed around an aluminum cylinder which is made out of an aluminum sheet by rolling it. This aluminum cylinder acts as a reflector for UV rays.
3. Ground station controller: This is the remote controller of the robot. The screen shows the camera feedback received from the robot. The joystick is used to move the robot. UV lights can be turned on and off using the UV switch. The arming switch acts as a safety switch. It cuts down all the functionalities of the upon turning on.
A video system will be used for the remote monitoring of the robot. Just connect the power to this system and it will start transmitting the video feed using 5.8GHz. Once you power up the screen it will start showing the camera feed. The lower frame will be build which includes the battery, converter, and whole electronic system. To convert the 12v to AC 230V to power up the UV lights, an inverter circuit is used here. We will purchase a commercially available inverter unit with an inbuilt charger. This helps to avoid the complexity of the electronic system by allowing us to charge the lead-acid battery using the existing power points. Ground Control Station (GCS) will have a 2.4GHZ 4Ch RC Transmitter, FPV screen, toggle switches, power switch, 18650 battery cells, 3 cell battery management system module for 18650, 12V, 5A switch mode power supply.
Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry HealthOther Industries Medical Core Technology RoboticsOther TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for People, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Life on LandRequired Resources| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 75600 | |||
| Arduino | Equipment | 1 | 600 | 600 |
| Relay Module | Equipment | 1 | 400 | 400 |
| Dual Motor Driver VNH5019 | Equipment | 1 | 4000 | 4000 |
| Dry Cell Battery | Equipment | 1 | 2000 | 2000 |
| DC Gear Motors | Equipment | 2 | 1800 | 3600 |
| FPV Camera | Equipment | 1 | 1500 | 1500 |
| TFT Color Monitor | Equipment | 1 | 4000 | 4000 |
| 6 Channel Controller | Equipment | 1 | 8500 | 8500 |
| UV Lights | Equipment | 6 | 2500 | 15000 |
| ICs, resistors, capacitors, Vero board etc | Equipment | 1 | 1000 | 1000 |
| Structure Body | Equipment | 1 | 20000 | 20000 |
| Inverter 300 Watt | Equipment | 1 | 3000 | 3000 |
| DC Power Supply | Equipment | 1 | 1500 | 1500 |
| Battery Monitor BMS | Equipment | 1 | 2500 | 2500 |
| Miscellaneous | Miscellaneous | 1 | 8000 | 8000 |