Portolio of David Elkan-Gonzalez
This device uses UV light to kill pathogens.
We broke the map into segments to determine which wall segments were visible from a point.
Robot UV Sterilization
Team Size: 3
Project Duration: 8
Year Completed: Senior
Key Skills, ROS, Python, Computer Vision
This project emerged around the time of the ebola outbreak of 2015. There was a particalur 'robot' that was getting a lot of media around this time for it's ability to kill ebola and other pathogens using UV rays: the Xenex Sterilization 'Robot'. We took issue with calling this device a robot. In reality it is a cart with a powerful UV bulb. It was pushed into a room by a worker, who then vacates the room and waits while the 'robot' performs a fixed sterilzation cycle. The worker then repositions the 'robot' randomly, performing this process a total of3 times. There are no significant sensor readings, computations, or other forms of reaction to enviornment. This random selection can cause an issues, since shadows my not be fully sterilized. This could potentially lead to UV-resistant pathogens surviving and in the long-term decrease the effectiveness of UV sterilization.
In order to add some intelligence to this so called robot, we developed a system to scan hospital blueprints and calculate ideal flash points for a Xenex in order to minimize shadows. Based on a scan of a room our program would calculate optimum placements for the robot in order to maximize coverage. For more accurate placements a lidar scan could be used instead of a blueprint. This of course does not fully automate a Xenex. The addition
of a mobile base and navigation stack would still be necessary to fully automate this process.