• Universitat de València
• General Hospital of València

• Cristóbal Zaragoza Fernández
• Ricardo Guijarro Jorge
• Juan Gilabert Estellés
• Emilio López Alcina
• Jesús Fayos Jover

The COVID19 pandemic has brought to light major deficiencies in the world's healthcare systems with regard to the high rate of infection among healthcare workers. One of the main causes is direct contact with hospital rooms, which have a high viral load, making it essential to have effective, rapid and safe disinfection methods for the staff carrying out the disinfection.

Classical disinfection methods are characterised by slow, manual processes involving several steps and direct contact of the staff with infected areas.

Automated disinfection systems are currently available on the market, but they have certain shortcomings when it comes to disinfecting items at different heights or cannot disinfect partially or totally clogged or blocked items. Furthermore, these systems are based on a single disinfection method.

All these factors highlight the need to create more effective automatic systems that allow remote disinfection of hospital rooms, ensuring the total elimination of infectious agents in any corner or object present in the room.

Research staff from the Universitat de València (IRTIC) and the General Hospital of València have developed AIDRIX, a disinfection robot that bases its virucidal capacity on the combination of two disinfection methods. On the one hand, it has a powerful C-band ultraviolet light (UVC) lamp, and on the other, it has a hydrogen peroxide ultrasound nebulisation system.

The robot has the ability to recognise the 3D environment in which it is located and to perform disinfections autonomously, moving by itself and basing its decisions on the situation it encounters in real time. In addition, it implements a series of algorithms to minimise the areas where UVC radiation does not reach and thus achieve maximum disinfection of each type of room.

Disinfection of most viruses and/or bacteria in hospitals, operating rooms, education centres, public buildings, cinemas, theatres, nightclubs, meeting rooms or company offices, airports, etc.

The use of the AIDRIX robot has several advantages over the disinfection systems currently in use:

• Reduces the risk of contagion by the staff in charge of disinfecting contaminated rooms.
• Reduces the disinfection time of a specific room.
• It generates an objective report after cleaning each room with the result of the disinfection and the areas where the disinfection system has not reached.
• Reduces the degradation of materials by limiting the UVC light emission time.
• Minimises non-disinfected areas, as AIDRIX estimates the UVC shaded areas.
• Double disinfection (UVC light + hydrogen peroxide nebulisation).

• Patent applied