Researchers create drones to disinfect public spaces

A team of researchers from the Health Innovation via Engineering lab, at NUI Galway, have created an autonomous drone that uses ultraviolet light to strerilize surfaces. It is called the UVCDrone and was developed after the first surge of COVID-19 in Ireland as a way to deal with a possible second wave of the pandemic.

UVC is a type of high frequency radiation than can be used to destroy the virus’s genetic material, preventing multiplication.
The UVCDrone is meant to sanitize public places like hospital wars, restaurants, public transportations, etc, to help control the spread of the virus. Since UV light can be harmfull to humans, the drone is supposed to be used when these places are closed or vacant. To make this process easier, the drone can be programmed to switch on at a specific time and autonomously fly around the surfaces, switching odd automatically when it is finished with the strelization.

The team was led by Professor Derek O’Keeffe and Dr. Ted Vaughan, along with Dr. Kevin Johnson from the University of Limerick. In a press realease, the team states that “COVID19 is a public health emergency and @UVCDrone is another important tool to help us defeat it.”

Adapted from: https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/0603/1145178-scientists-develop-ul...
https://interestingengineering.com/scientists-create-uv-light-emitting-d...