China was the first country to experience an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Entire cities and regions were sealed off. A challenging situation for everyone. Yu Qi, head of Siemens China's advanced manufacturing automation research group based in Qingdao, wondered at the time what he could do to "help in the fight against Covid-19". As China stepped up its efforts to combat the virus during the Chinese New Year holidays, he was looking for a way to use modern technology to control the virus.

Fighting the virus with an electric disinfection robot

During the epidemic, it was reported that disinfection robots were urgently needed in many hospitals to free people from disinfecting high-risk areas.

Yu Qi works in the laboratory for robot applications jointly founded by Siemens and Aucma. The focus is on the development of special robots, unmanned vehicles, industrial robots and intelligent devices. The idea of developing a new type of intelligent disinfection robot was born and the team was looking forward to the task. Due to the hygiene requirements, the team decided to develop purely electric disinfection robots. Siemens and Aucma launched the project on February 7, shortly after the extended Chinese New Year vacation.

At the start of development, the team was faced with a number of questions:

• How should the control systems for the atomizing guns and the electrical chassis be integrated?
• How can the sterilization effect be maximized with less disinfectant?
• How to ensure 360° coverage even in narrow areas?

The design validation included rounds of product testing and user feedback. The Siemens and Aucma teams worked from home and kept in touch via phone calls.

A week later, on February 15, the team successfully completed their first disinfection robot.

Information in real time

Powered by a lithium battery, a robot with dual atomizing guns can disinfect 20,000 to 36,000 m² in one hour. An omnidirectional camera platform on the top transmits video and information in real time, coupled with an intelligent image processing algorithm that allows the operator to locate affected areas remotely.

Instead of wheels, the team opted for a tracked chassis. This enables the robots to operate safely on different surfaces, overcome obstacles more easily and climb inclines more effectively.

The team filed patents for the developments in the design and the autonomous control systems. The newly developed disinfection robots are ready for market launch and will soon be used in hospitals in China to contain the spread of viruses. In addition, more robots will be delivered to schools, offices, production sites and other public places to support the resumption of work and production.