Towards Verifiable COVID-19 Aerosol Disinfection using Ultraviolet Light with a Mobile Robot.

Robots are being increasingly used to fight against the novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in the current global pandemic. In previous work, we looked at the use of sophisticated mobile manipulation robots to perform surface disinfection in the context of the Ebola Virus Disease, using ultraviolet light. In this work, a human supervisor designates a surface to be disinfected. Then the robot autonomously plans a set of motions to disinfect the surface, using an ultraviolet light held in its gripper. Finally, the system displays the amount of ultraviolet radiation delivered to each part of the surface, so that the human supervisor can verify that the operation was successful. In this paper, we describe this work, and discuss how it could be adapted to the other pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2. In particular, we discuss how to move from disinfecting surfaces, which are of concern for Ebola, to open space disinfection, which is important in the fight against COVID-19.