Good News Network: [2] Completely circumnavigating the problem of supply shortages of things like hand sanitizer, Akara Robotics, founded at Trinity College, Ireland, has developed a robot that emits ultraviolet irradiated light to kill viruses, bacteria, and other harmful germs from hospital floors and other surfaces.
[3] Sweetly named Robot Violet, it is clinically proven to kill viruses—and can sanitize an entire hospital room in half the time it would take to do the same task using conventional “deep cleaning” approaches.
[4] The long tubular light looks like one you might see in a warehouse or factory, but it floats around the room as if a Jedi lightsaber were mounted on a Roomba vacuum cleaner.
[5] Violet’s powers come from UVC rays shot at very short wavelengths. These breakdown the DNA in microbes and stop them from being able to replicate and can arrest the spread of germs, ideally including COVID-19, though they are still awaiting test results for the now-infamous virus to see if the robot can officially be relied upon to remove it.
[6] Many surfaces, especially those on various hospital equipment, need to be washed by hand. Inventor Connor McGinn says his robot would greatly enhance this cleaning process, allowing hospitals that are swamped with patients to clean rooms and equipment without any human being present.