Thursday, 23 July 2020

Sanitization robots to help fight the virus

First tests for the prototype developed by UniTrento and Dolomiti Robotics

Versione stampabile

DRP-H1 (“Dolomiti Robotics Platform Health line 1”) is an automated robot jointly developed by the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Trento and Dolomiti Robotics, a start-up recently founded by a group of former students of UniTrento with the participation of the University.

The sanitizing machine is the result of intensive research that led to the development of modules focused on localization and mapping, navigation in populated environments, trajectory control. The robot exploits cutting-edge technologies.

It is able to move around autonomously, avoid obstacles, monitor the presence of people and to target the most exposed surfaces - like handles. 

Its goal is to selectively disinfect large public areas like the shared spaces of University departments. The DRP-H1 has two main modes of operation: patrolling and disinfection.

When patrolling, in daily hours, the robots navigates autonomously and records the presence of humans and their average distance. In the disinfection mode, it sprays disinfectant in the open environments and thoroughly cleans handles and other surfaces that are touched by hands.

At the end of the pilot phase the researchers will explore possible applications and make an estimate of time and costs required for its transition to the market.

More details in the press release.