Using robots to improve indoor air quality and reduce COVID-19 exposure

Abstract

Air pollution is the world’s largest environmental health risk, accounting yearly for about 8 million deaths. Most of the people spend 80% to 90% of their time indoors. Therefore, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has a direct impact on overall health. In this paper, a robot, equipped with sensors for measuring IAQ parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, CO2, Particulate Matters and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) is used to measure these parameters and compare the measured values to the pre-set permissible levels of concentrations of such parameters. If one (or more) of the measured values exceed the pre-set threshold values, the measured values are communicated to the user via a mobile application and the robot will take a corrective action by disinfecting the place using a sterilizing solution. Validation of the methodology was verified at an educational institute in Alexandria, Egypt.

Implemented indoor airborne transmission mitigation strategies during COVID-19: a systematic review

“…A case study in a Spanish area with Mediterranean climate Experimental Educational building CO 2 , air flow per person (l/s). air exchange rate, thermal comfort ( 27 ) Abdallah and Nasr (2021) Egypt Using robots to improve indoor air quality and reduce COVID-19 exposure Experimental Educational building Temperature (°C), relative humidity (%), CO2 (ppm), Particulate Matters and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) ( 28 ) Meyrs et al (2022) USA Portable air cleaners and residential exposure to SARS-CoV-2 aerosols: A real-world study Experimental Residential Questionnaires, PM, SARS-CoV-2 RNA (Saliva), ACH, Total suspended particles ( 29 ) Li et al (2021) China Poor ventilation worsens short-range airborne transmission of respiratory infection Simulation Residential Expired flow rate (m 3 /min), ventilation rate (l/s) ( 30 ) Baˇcík et al (2020) Slovakia Phollower—The Universal Autonomous Mobile Robot for Industry and Civil Environments with COVID-19 Germicide Addon Meeting Safety Requirements Experimental Residential building - ( 31 ) Park et al (2021) South Korea Natural ventilation strategy and related issues to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) airborne transmission in a school building Experimental Educational building CO 2 , ventilation rate (ACH), ventilation volume (m/s) ( 32 ) Aguilar et al (2021) Spain Monitoring...…”

“…Additionally, they found that manipulating air change rate should be done with caution as it may increase the viral airborne transmission via HVAC systems [ 36 ]. Some the research reports on mitigating the COVID-19 spread in residential buildings were the use of novel technological devices such as portable air purifiers [ 29 ], application of autonomous robots to disinfect the environment [ 31 ]. Li et al (2022) in found that a ventilation rate of 10 L/s per person can provide a similar contaminant concentration and distance decay profile equal to an outdoor setting for a person located in the indoor environment.…”

Review of Engineering Controls for Indoor Air Quality: A Systems Design Perspective

“…Zhang et al [522] have integrated genetic algorithms and artificial neural networks to control ventilation actions and improve IAQ indices. To mitigate indoor infection risks associated with COVID-19, information-based technologies have been developed, such as social distance monitoring [523,524], cough detection [525], and the use of robots for disinfection [526,527].…”