The Delhi Division of the Indian railways released a video that shows a UV light robot being used to disinfect compartments for COVID-19. Travel has been the worst-hit industry ever since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and since then, transport companies and organisations have been leveraging technology to combat the virus.
This is the first time the national transporter has used modern technology in the form of a robot to disinfect a compartment and curb the spread of COVID-19 virus by using ultraviolet light. “To prevent the spread of the pandemic, Delhi Division has started ‘Technology-driven Disinfection through UVC Robots’ having UVC light for 100% disinfection of compartment area in coach,” the Ministry of Railways said in a tweet.
The robot was deployed for the first time in the 02004 New Delhi-Lucknow Shatabdi Express route. The video shows a robot extending its arms to spread the UV light across the aisles and moving forward automatically. The arms are essentially waving UV lights above the seats while disinfecting them at the same time.
Robots have been deployed around the world to combat the COVID-19 pandemic for various purposes. Some robots have been used for testing citizens in Denmark while others have been used for spreading information in Japan.
Robots with UV lights have also been used to disinfect hospitals in Italy and have been aptly given the name of “Germ Zappers.”
It’s reassuring to see the Indian railways using robots to disinfect trains even though it was done under the supervision of officials. We could see a wide-scale implementation of these robots to disinfect trains, airplanes and hospitals if the experiment turns out to be successful.
The deployment of robots to combat COVID-19 in various parts of the world have been successful for a variety of reasons. Robots don’t need masks, can be sanitised easily and most importantly don’t contract the virus.
While the robot was used in Delhi for disinfecting a single train, we could see this procedure being deployed across the country. While it would be hard to deploy robots at every station in the country, it could still be possible to use them at transportation hubs such as Mumbai, Delhi and other major cities.
