University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines

Alubijid | Cagayan de Oro | Claveria | Jasaan | Oroquieta | Panaon

College of Engineering & Architecture

Autonomous Disinfection Fogging System

Performance Task for Electrical Circuit 1

Submitted to:
Ms. Rosalie Vertudes
EE211 (Electrical Circuit 1)

Submitted by:
Charles Ivan F. Alaba
BS ECE 2A

October 2021
Background of the Study
In the late 2019 an outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) began and then
became a worldwide pandemic, in which it brings a huge pressure and risk to the public
healthcare system worldwide. This also means that various social activities especially in terms of
education, entertainment, religious gatherings etc. became restricted. Various measures were
introduced in order to control the spread of the COVID-19. Such examples of these are proper
handwashing, social distancing and isolation of infection where such actions became effective in
preventing the rapid increase of coronavirus cases (Ruan et al., 2021).

Since the outbreak began, there is an increasing need of proper disinfection system.
Sanitization became an essential aspect in pandemic and plays a critical role in preventing from
the exposure of the said virus. Proper disinfection and sterilization aids in reduced probability of
disease transmission. This practice does not just apply in medical facilities but also in households.
Due to lockdowns and home quarantine, there have been an increasing risk of getting the disease
in household especially for the medical workers. Yet, the availability and application of
traditional surface disinfectants became a challenge because of the possible exposure to the
virus. Also, the existing disinfectant procedures that rely on the manual operation of chemical-
based disinfectants became time consuming, costly and vulnerable to human error (McGinn et
al., 2021). The high-risk zone or contaminated surfaces is also dangerous for the people due to
the fact that there is a possibility of the transmission and contraction of this COVID-19 virus. A
study by Dancer (2007) shows that only 50% of surfaces in hospital rooms are sufficiently cleaned
between patients’ admissions. Hence, the hospital environment is a possible source for the
transmission of pathogens in the healthcare environment.

However, there were numerous innovative solutions that were made in order to address
the concern of limitation of the human intervention. One example of the startup innovation is
the disinfection systems. The typical disinfection approach relies heavily on liquid products but it
is not very scalable as it is in need of human intervention (Mansour, 2020). Alternatives have
been made, such as airborne disinfection systems. In this type of disinfection, the disinfectant is
spread in the form of droplets in which they are deposited on surfaces. Airborne disinfection is
helpful in disinfecting areas that are hard to reach. Some countries have approved the no-touch
technologies for applying chemical disinfectants (e.g., vaporized hydrogen peroxide) in health-
care settings such as fogging-type applications (WHO, 2020).

Also in this case, the use of robots became a preventive approach to overcome the
resulting difficulties and increase the effectiveness of the COVID-19 pandemic response. The
deployment of drones is also used as it increases the efficiency in disinfection efforts. Therefore,
the objective of this project is the minimizing of human intervention as much as possible and thus
making the task autonomous especially in disinfection and sanitization through the help of robot.
In this circumstance, robots can help to reduce human exposure to infections, that is becoming
more crucial as epidemics spread.

Statement of the Study

According to Wadibhasme et al. (2020), one of the high-risk zones of exposure to this
deadly virus is in the area where people rush to for the cure, that are the hospitals and the
medical wards. Sanitation in these locations is extremely difficult and necessitates extreme
precautions. But, despite all of these certain precautions, there is always a risk involved. In
households, the need of sanitization became prominent in recent days as it helps the family and
individual from the possible contraction from the virus and other disease. However, there is an
insufficient information in applying the autonomous technology where it incorporates in the
sanitation and disinfection system in household setting. Although one study has shown that
spraying as a primary disinfection strategy is ineffective in removing contaminants outside of
direct spray zones (WHO, 2020). But fogging or misting, on the other hand, has the advantage of
ensuring that every surface is effectively covered while decreasing the labor and chemical costs
associated with hand disinfection.

The purpose of this study is to create a novel cost-efficient autonomous disinfecting

system. It is then incorporated with a fogging system in order to quickly and easily apply
disinfecting chemicals to every surface in a room.
Objectives of the Study

This study focuses on the effectivity and practicability of the autonomous disinfection robot
through the use of fogging system.

The following are the objectives of the study:

1. To be able to design and create a robot where its purpose is for sanitation fogging
system.
2. To determine the performance of the disinfection robot in terms of test setting,
efficiency and effectivity.
3. To specify prototype requirements necessary in performing its tasks.

Theoretical Framework

The COVID-19 pandemic will have a significant and long-term impact on all scientific endeavors.
Various innovations and researches emerged in order to adapt to a lasting change in the society
and medical industry. According to Seifer (2020), these changes also affect and became
essentially significant to human domains such as human-robot interaction (HRI). The “modality
of physical human–robot interaction” (HRI), where the human and the robot work in direct
physical contact, depends on whether the robot is wearable, collaborative, teleoperated, or
autonomous. This means that the interaction of humans and robots has the potential to set new
grounds in medical applications because it combines the strengths of humans, such as flexibility
and adaptability, and the strengths of robots, such as power and precision (Giuliani, 2010).
Drawing an example in China, where they extensively use urban robotics for facilitating the crisis
and pandemic control, this can be an example of how robotics helps in pandemic and on how
human effort also cooperates with the autonomous technology (Chen, B., Marvin, S., & While, A,
2020).
Significance of the Study

The results of the study will be of great benefit to the following:

Household. This study can be greatly applied in household setting as it helps them in disinfecting
tight spaces and larger room area. This can also be essential especially during home quarantine.

Community. The results of this study help the community by creating and innovating more
projects related to this research. Its system and design can also be implemented to the
community in order to have a safer and clean environment.

Medical Facilities. Upon further innovation and improvement of this study, it can be a great help
to the various medical facilities especially in smaller facilities. Medical workers can use this
project especially in high-risk areas of infection.

Future Studies. With this study, it can be created as one of the foundation and sources of another
research which correlates to a given topic. It can also be beneficial for the future projects
particularly in biomedical robotics.
References:

Mansour, K. (2021, February 19). Disinfection tech ensuring a cleaner and safer post-COVID

world. Early Metrics. https://earlymetrics.com/disinfection-tech-ensuring-cleaner-safer-

post-covid/

McGinn, C., Scott, R., Donnelly, N., et al. (2021). Exploring the Applicability of Robot-Assisted

UV Disinfection in Radiology. Frontiers.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2020.590306/full

Wadibhasme, A., Yedhubooshan, M., Moolya, K., et al. (2020). Sanitization robot. IRJET.

https://www.irjet.net/archives/V7/i8/IRJET-V7I8508.pdf

Disinfecting using fog, mist and other systems during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

(2021). Health and Safety Executive. https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/disinfecting-

premises-during-coronavirus-outbreak.htm

Seifer, D., Haring, K. S., Rossi, S., Wagner, A. R., & Williams, T. (2021). Where to Next? The

Impact of COVID-19 on Human-Robot Interaction Research. ACM Transactions on

Human-Robot Interaction, 10(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3405450

Dancer, S. J. (2008). Importance of the environment in meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus

aureus acquisition: the case for hospital cleaning. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 8(2),

101–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(07)70241-4

Chen, B., Marvin, S., & While, A. (2020). Containing COVID-19 in China: AI and the robotic

restructuring of future cities. Dialogues in Human Geography, 10(2), 238–241.

https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820620934267

Ruan, K.; Wu, Z.; Xu, Q. (2021) Smart cleaner: A new autonomous indoor disinfection robot for

combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Robotics. https:// doi.org/10.3390/robotics10030087

WHO (2020) Smart cleaner: Cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces in the context

of COVID-19. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/cleaning-and-disinfection-of-

environmental-surfaces-inthe-context-of-covid-19.