Osama Al-Awadhi Ahmed Al-Marsd Hussein Al-Maneefi

Volume 1, Issue (1), 2023

Developing a Pathogen Sterilization Robot

based on Ultraviolet Radiation

Osama Al-Awadhi )*,1(

Ahmed Al-Marsd 1
Hussein Al-Maneefi 1

© 2023 University of Science and Technology, Sana’a, Yemen. This article can
be distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original author and source are credited.
‫ ميكن إعادة اســتخدام املادة املنشــورة حســب رخصة‬.‫ اليمن‬،‫ جامعة العلوم والتكنولوجيا‬2023‫©ا‬
.‫مؤسسة املشاع اإلبداعي شريطة االستشهاد باملؤلف واملجلة‬

1 Department of Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Science and

Technology, Sana’a, Yemen
* Corresponding author: osama.alawadhi@hotmail.com

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Developing a Pathogen Sterilization Robot based on Ultraviolet

Radiation

Abstract:
The role of robots for disinfection and sterilize purposes is increasing with
time, due to the challenge of the global Covid-19 pandemic, which led
to a shortage in the availability of traditional surface disinfectants due to
their extensive use also because of the poor efficiency in sterilizing using
the normal methods of cleaning. All that considered and after we have
studied the effect of ultraviolet radiation on viruses, we proposed to develop
a pathogen sterilization robot based on Ultraviolet radiation. This project is
designed to develop a sterilization robot using Hector_SLAM technology for
navigation. The aim of our work is to contribute to combating the spread of
Covid-19 in hospitals, public transportation, airlines and any closed areas
and to develop a new method for sterilizing. The sterilization robot sterilizes
pathogens and viruses in rooms. The robot move around autonomously
and it is equipment with ultraviolet rays, and it turns off automatically when
humans are around to keep them safe due to the danger of radiation.

Keywords: Autonomous robot, Service robot, Mobile robot, Indoor

sanitizing, SLAM, Automation.

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 ‫‪Osama Al-Awadhi‬‬ ‫‪Ahmed Al-Marsd‬‬ ‫‪Hussein Al-Maneefi‬‬
‫‪Volume 1, Issue (1), 2023‬‬

‫روبوت تعقيم باستخدام األشعة فوق البنفسجية‬

‫الملخص‪:‬‬
‫يتزايــد دور الروبوتات يف أغــراض التطهري والتعقيم مبرور الوقت‪ ،‬بســبب التحدي الذي ميثله‬
‫وبــاء كوفيد‪ 19 -‬العاملي‪ ،‬والذي أدى إىل نقص يف توافر املطهرات الســطحية التقليدية بســبب‬
‫أيضا بســبب ضعف الكفاءة يف التعقيم باســتخدام طرق التنظيف العادية‪.‬‬ ‫اســتخدامها املكثف ً‬
‫كل هــذا يف االعتبار وبعد دراســة تأثري األشــعة فوق البنفســجية على الفريوســات‪ ،‬اقترحنا‬
‫تطوير روبوت لتعقيم مســببات األمراض يعتمد على األشــعة فوق البنفســجية‪ .‬مت تصميم هذا‬
‫املشروع لتطوير روبوت تعقيم باســتخدام تقنية ‪ Hector_SLAM‬للمالحة‪ .‬اهلدف من عملنا هو‬
‫املسامهة يف مكافحة انتشار ‪ Covid-19‬يف املستشفيات ووسائل النقل العام وشركات الطريان وأي‬
‫مناطــق مغلقة وتطوير طريقة جديدة للتعقيم‪ .‬يقوم روبوت التعقيم بتعقيم مســببات األمراض‬
‫والفريوســات يف الغرف‪ .‬يتحرك الروبوت بشكل مســتقل وهو عبارة عن جهاز مزود باألشعة فوق‬
‫البنفســجية‪ ،‬ويتم إيقاف تشــغيله تلقائ ًيا عندما يكون البشــر يف اجلوار للحفاظ على سالمتهم‬
‫بسبب خطر اإلشعاع‪.‬‬
‫الكلمات املفتاحية‪ :‬روبوت مستقل‪ ،‬روبوت خدمة‪ ،‬روبوت متحرك‪ ،‬تعقيم داخلي‪ ،SLAM ،‬أمتتة‪.‬‬

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1. Introduction
Sterilize has emerged as an increased area of concern after the spread of the
global epidemic COVID 19 it has imparted us a lesson, that the threat is not a
one-time phenomenon and that now it is always worth worrying about sanitizing
and personal protective equipment, mainly in distinctly populated areas. These
locations consist of restaurants, hospitals, hotels, airports, football stadiums and
faculties to call a few. Because of this, we’re seeing increasingly corporations and
establishments turning to automation for sterilizing rooms and public spaces. To
deal with this problem, most hospitals and restaurants may have employees
manually wipe down and sterilize high-contact regions. This is problematic,
thinking about there’s constantly the hazard of employees contacting with the
virus, and studies has proven that not all high-contact regions have a tendency
to be cleaned. Studies show that COVID-19 stays on various surfaces for up to
80 hours and touchable surfaces, e.g., door handles, handrails, office furniture,
and etc., represent a high risk of transmitting the virus.
Another problem in enclosed spaces is that COVID-19 is airborne and highly
transmittable, and it remains in the air in the form of particles for up to 3 hours
[1]. The main problem in the struggle for sterilization is that in most places, at
the moment, stationary methods are used, or manual methods of cleaning and
sterilizing the surface. Even though manual sterilization is quite effective, since
many inaccessible places are cleaned, these methods are also dangerous for
the operators. If they are not indoor sterilization devices, stationary methods
also require operators, which increases the risk of their use, as they have to
be constantly moved according to the sterilization schedule. To deal with this
dilemma the ultraviolet light has been used as it has a powerful approach to
killing dangerous bacteria, viruses in hospitals for decades. The UV-C light has
been formerly used to fight different coronaviruses together with SARS, MERS,
and in addition to the Ebola virus. Therefor building a robotic vehicle with the
ultraviolet light attached to it will create a modern technique of sterilizing which
is thorough, quicker and much less labor intensive than manual sanitizing [1].
This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 problem analysis. Section 3 related
work. Section 4 explains the structure, components, and the working principle of
the system. Section 5 describes the hardware and software design of the system.
Testing the system is presented in section 6. Finally, conclusion and future work
are summarized in section 7.
2. Problem Analysis
The robot is designed to work in large areas, possibly with people. These can
be mosques, warehouses, shopping centers, offices. To accomplish this task, the
problems we are going to solve with this project are the following:
• Wide spaces that need to be sterilize in short amount of time.
• The dangerous of sterilizing materials.
• The cost for sterilizing materials.
• The efficiency for sterilizing the surfaces.
• The dangerous of contacting directly with the diseases like the Covid-19.

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3. Related Work
An Engineers working with the Intelligent Space Robotics Laboratory, Space
CREI, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russian Federation.
developed a UV sanitizer robot they called it UltraBot, UltraBot technology has
the potential to offer the most optimal autonomous disinfection performance
along with taking care of people, keeping them from getting under UV-C
radiation. The paper highlights UltraBot’s mechanical and electrical structures
as well as low-level and high-level control systems. The conducted experiments
demonstrate the effectiveness of the robot localization module and optimal
trajectories for UV-C disinfection. The results of UV-C disinfection performance
revealed a decrease of the total bacterial count (TBC) by 94% on the distance of
2.8 meters from the robot after 10 minutes of UV-C irradiation [2].
4. The structure, components, and the working principle of the system
In this section, a complete comprehension of building the hardware is presented
and it talks about function of tools that have been used in the project. Also, this
chapter talks about the software of the project. photos and block diagram of the
project are presented.
Figure 1 below shows the general block diagram of the System.

Figure 1: General system block diagram

This system only contains three main blocks: User, Software and Hardware.
The user in this system will be the one who runs the Linux system through the
laptop and controls the whole system and monitor it by running a few codes of
programs in the ROS environment which is integrated with the Linux system.
4.1 Hardware
Project wiring was done as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Project Wiring

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The main components of the system were:

Raspberry pi 3: It is the main controller. It is responsible for the navigation by
sending commands to the motor after processing the data from the RpLidar
sensor.
RPLiDAR sensor: It is the sensor responsible for drawing the 2D map using the
infrared radiation and sending the data to the Raspberry pi 3 for processing.
Arduino Uno: in this project it was implemented as the interface driver with the
motors also as the protection system with the conjunction of the passive infrared
sensor.
PIR sensor: Passive infrared sensor is a motion sensor that was used to prevent
the ultraviolet lamps from working when sensing a heated body in the area.
Ultraviolet Lamps: it is the main source of radiation for killing the viruses.
12V Battery: it is the main power source of the entire system.
Gera Motors: They are the actuators of the Robot to navigate inside the rooms.
Bluetooth shield: used with Arduino to control the ultraviolet lamps remotely
using an app installed in Smartphone or Laptop.
Laptop: it the main monitor of the robot operations and controls the robot
wirelessly.
Besides, Figure 3 below shows the physical wiring.

Figure 3: Physical wiring of the robot

4.2 Software
The main system the was used is Linux but the main environment that was used
for control, monitor and navigate was ROS (Robot Operating System) [3].
Python and Arduino IDE were used in the project all of these languages were
held by the ROS kinetic (Robot Operating System) environment, which is one of
its advantages [4] that can compile and run many programming languages and
coordinate between all of them.

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4.3 Block Diagram

Figure 4 below shows the relation between every component in the system.

Figure 4: Components Relations

5. Working Principle and System Algorithm

The working principle of the project is in the beginning we run the system and
control the motors manually from the laptop we began to scan the room and
create a 2D map using the lidar sensor after that we set the target for the robot
to navigate to. Finally, we activate the ultraviolet lamps and leave the room for
sanitizing.
The protection measurements were set by the PIR (Passive Infrared) that if it
detects anybody that emits infrared and sends a signal to the control system and
immediately shuts down the motors and the UV (Ultraviolet) lamps until the body
levers the range of detection.
The flowchart in Figure 5 demonstrates the general algorithm used in this Robot.

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Figure 5: System Algorithm

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6. Testing the System

We started to recorded a map using the RpLidar and the result of the map
accuracy was shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: A 2D map of a first floor of an apartment

after that we opened Rviz (the platform that shows the map) and set a 2D pose
estimate after that set a navigation goal. We turned on the UV (Ultraviolet)
lamps and the robot starts to move according to the goal pos and orientation by
avoiding the obstacles that exist and start the sanitization process
6.1 Protection test
In the protection we used PIR sensor to detect the heat signature of humans or
animals we succeeded to a point that in approximately 1.5 meter the sensor can
effectively detect the presence of someone and shut down the UV light for 25
seconds and also stops the motor using the relay but we canceled the motor idea
due to the PIR (Passive Infrared) unreliability most of the time. But in general, it
worked as desired.
6.2 Power test
On the power test we measured the current drawing from the battery using a
multimeter device and we found out the following measurements:
in Standby: 0.5 Amp
With Motor running without load: 0.9 Amp
With the whole system running (including lamps and sensors): 3.2 Amp

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7. Conclusion and Future work

The purpose of this thesis was to document the progress we made toward the
project that would contribute to the growing body of open-source work with
ROS and the Mobile Robot. In the UV sterilizing robot project, the aim was
to develop a system that sanitize any premises autonomously without the
intervene of human being We have found that the system worked successfully
both hardware and software we have finished our robot and make it able to
localize and create a map for its environment and move to any point and the
work of the UV light to sanitize while its moving towards the goal target while
having the security measurements to avoid effecting a human with the UV light
radiation. Although the work of the PIR wasn’t accurate but it was a start towards
improving the protection system of the UV robotics machines. Further, some
of the aforementioned unsolved problems are currently under consideration in
order to improve performance of the UV sterilizing robot one of them is that we
had some issues in the navigation process due to the lack of time and resources
and the structure of the robot wasn’t built accurately causing a vibration while its
moving. But overall, we could call it a successful project hoping in the future our
colleges could finish and built a fully autonomous robot.
Our future work on this project is as follows:
1) Changing the raspberry pi 3 to raspberry pi 4 which has more RAM there for
it makes it smoother in executing commands and more stable than the pi 3.
2) Upgrading the ROS version from ROS Kinetic to ROS Melodic because the
ROS Kinetic is no longer supported from the ROS.org
3) Adding 3D lidar scanner will be more effective in visualizing all of the surfaces
that can be maneuvered or sanitized in a 3D dimensional point of view.
4) Replacing the current UV tube with a UV pulsed light tube which is more
powerful energy for radiation. It can save time and have an excellent
efficiency in sanitizing.
5) Building a charging house so that whenever the battery is running low the UV
Robot return to the charging house to recharge the battery autonomously
without the need of charging it manually (Automated process).
6) Building an application to view the Robot status like battery percentage UV
light status and PIR status.
7) Replacing the PIR detection sensor with IR imaging Camera because it is more
reliable and accurate than the PIR sensor.
8. References
[1] N. Mikhailovskiy, A. Sedunin, S. Perminov, I. Kalinov and D. Tsetserukou,
“UltraBot: Autonomous Mobile Robot for Indoor UV-C Disinfection with Non-
trivial Shape of Disinfection Zone,” 2021 26th IEEE International Conference
on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA), Vasteras,
Sweden, 2021, pp. 1-7, doi: 10.1109/ETFA45728.2021.9613707.

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[2] S. Perminov et al., “UltraBot: Autonomous Mobile Robot for Indoor UV-C
Disinfection,” 2021 IEEE 17th International Conference on Automation
Science and Engineering (CASE), Lyon, France, 2021, pp. 2147-2152, doi:
10.1109/CASE49439.2021.9551413.
[3] Joseph, Lentin. (2022). Robot Operating System for Absolute Beginners:
Robotics Programming made easy. APRESS.
[4] Pyo, Y. S., Cho, H. C., Jung, R. W., & Lim, T. H. (n.d.). Ros Robot Programming
(First Edition, Vol. 1). ROBOTIS Co., Ltd.

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