Summary/Readers Response Draft #2
According to GovInsiders’ article on “How tech can ease the cleaning industry's manpower crunch”(2021), cleaning robots can work symbiotically with cleaners. These cleaning robots focus on “time-consuming, repetitive manual tasks” while the cleaners focus on other pressing matters that robots cannot do like “elevator buttons, bathrooms, and desks”. Whiz, an AI-powered commercial floorcare cleaning robot from SoftBank Robotics, has functions such as sensors to work automatedly, vacuuming, air filtration with HEPA filter and floor disinfection with GERMii’s UV-C technology(Softbank Robotics, n.d.). It automates vacuuming so workers can concentrate on things that benefit people. Organizations can send cleaners for training in light of the current pandemic so they will be well-prepared to fully utilize the most recent cleaning technologies. Additionally, not many studies were done on the consequences of using a disproportionate amount of cleaning chemicals that will be “concerning from health, cost, and environmental perspectives”. One solution to tackle such problems is the GERMii’s technology to modify Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) into a concentrated beam of light that is “lethal to viruses, bacteria, and pathogens”. Cleaners just need to wash off surfaces using "soap and cloth" to disinfect surfaces without the use of chemicals. Whiz can adopt the UV-C light module as it is close enough to the floor's surface to "almost instantaneously" kill Covid-19, bacteria, and fungus. Even though cleaning robots has its limitations, it is necessary to help combat the covid 19 pandemic. Places with high human traffic such as hospitals, hotels,malls and transportation platforms have adopted the use of cleaning robots and technology to ensure clean, safe, and healthy indoor environments.
Hospitals are using cleaning robots as they not only clean and sanitize efficiently, it also reduces the amount of human contact preventing the spread of covid 19. This can be achieved as the goal of having machines is to efficiently do the work of humans but also eradicating germs and limiting human contact due to the public health threat.(Lerman,2020). Cleaning robots that use ultraviolet disinfection can eliminate 99.9% of all bacteria in a hospital room within 10 minutes. Although the room must be vacant while being disinfected, the UV rays have no adverse effects. These robots do not take over workers as they are still needed to remove "hard" stains like blood and urine(International Federation of Robotics, 2021). With built-in AI systems, Whiz AI systems allows it to memorize specific cleaning routes or find the optimal route while avoiding obstructions and human traffic. It is also able to not only disinfect high contact surfaces but also keep the air clean with UV-C sterilization technology(Zhao et al., 2021) and also able to eliminate harmful airborne pathogens with HEPA filters and UVC light (Softbank Robotics, n.d.). Compared to manual cleaning, robotic cleaning can reduce the risk of infection among cleaning staff members while also ensuring that cleaning is done consistently and traceably. Robotic cleaning can be done more often and consistently than hand cleaning since they can carry out ongoing cleaning and disinfection tasks even at night. Cleaning robots also helps cleaning service companies solve their rising staffing deficit. (Health Euphoria, 2021). Both nurses and cleaning robots can help to keep the hospital clean and sanitized while reducing the amount of human contact with patients with transmittable diseases.
In hotels, cleaning duties are separated between simple and complex tasks. Cleaning the guest rooms is considered human work as it is complex and there are no robots to achieve such a high standard. For this reason, human workers continue to clean the guest rooms. In contrast, cleaning the hallways and the lobby is considered simple but time consuming thus cleaning robots can be used and can also achieve reasonable quality. (Osawa et al., 2017). Both tasks can now be done simultaneously by human and cleaning robots thus saving time and shortening the total amount of time needed for housekeeping while maintaining cleanliness .
Public areas that have high traffic need to be cleaned very often and can be physically demanding as it involves long working hours, unhygienic working conditions , a high accident rate, and high levels of occupational diseases.(Hoang, Tran. 2021) These do not affect cleaning robots and can alleviate these problems. Places with high human traffic that are adopting the usage of cleaning robots such as Changi Airport, SMRT and hawker centers.(Kok, 2021) The robots are designed to relieve cleaners and employees of taxing, repetitive jobs, freeing them up to perform other higher-value activities that may need them to learn new skills like robot handling.(Choo, 2020) These cleaning robots cleans most of its “hard floors, allowing their cleaning contractors to focus on the remaining areas that are hard to reach such as edges next to walls, fixtures and furniture and also carry out spot-cleaning to remove stubborn stains such as dried coffee or tea stains.(The Straits Times, n.d.)
Some limitations of the cleaning robots being used in hospitals is that single rooms must be ready quickly due to the high bed occupancy rates in many nations. UV-C robots will need additional time that interferes with daily hospital routines, which may disrupt regular hospital operations. As a result, their utilization must be included into hospital workflow. It is recommended to apply this new technology as an addition to the standard hospital cleaning and disinfection procedures. The major obstacles to the efficient usage of these robots are dirt and organic soiling since UV-C does not supply enough energy to inactivate bacterial and viral pathogens trapped in such material. Therefore, manual cleaning is a must before using UVC disinfection, which requires personnel and extra time. Additionally, in order to set up, monitor, and reset the program and after running into problems, disinfection robots require a professional supervisor. Not only that, most places are not developed with the thought of using cleaning robots so there might be uneven flooring or tight spaces that further limits the cleaning robots from their full potential. Cleaning robots are not cheap and may not be attractive to companies to include it into their business workflow.(Schahawi et al., 2021)
Cleaning robots are still relatively new and only largely focused on recently due to the pandemic and still have limitations to it. Even though they have some limitations, the advantages of using it exceeds its limitations. Because of the pandemic, people are much more aware of the dangers and importance of cleanliness and these autonomous cleaning robots have helped to solve the problems while achieving higher standards of cleanliness efficiently and also reducing the amount of human contact.
GERMii.(2021). How tech can ease the cleaning industry’s manpower crunch. https://govinsider.asia/future-of-work/how-tech-can-ease-the-cleaning-industrys-manpower-crunch-robots-germii/
Softbank Robotics.(n.d.) AI autonomous vacuum cleaning robot which captures and kills pathogens on the floor and in the air.
https://apac.softbankrobotics.com/apac/robot-germii/
hospital
Lerman, R.(2020) Robot cleaners are coming, this time to wipe up your coronavirus germs
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/08/robot-cleaners-surge-pandemic/
International Federation of Robotics(2021) Cleaning robots reduce infections in hospitals and public spaces
Zhao, Z., Ma, Y., Mushtaq, A., Rajper, A. M., Shehab, M., Heybourne, A., Song, W., Ren, H., & Tse, Z. T. (2021). Applications of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Technologies During COVID-19: A Review
Health Euphoria.(2021) AI and robotics in hospital cleaning
https://www.healtheuropa.com/ai-and-robotics-in-hospital-cleaning/107434/
Hotels
Osawa, H., Ema, A., Hattori, H., Akiya, N., Kanzaki, N., Kubo, A., Koyama, T., & Ichise, R. (2017) Analysis of robot hotel: Reconstruction of works with robots
Public spaces
The Straits Times(2021) Cleaning, transformed through technology The Straits Times
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/cleaning-transformed-through-technology
Kok, Y(2021) Cleaning robots deployed at Circle Line stations The Straits Times
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/cleaning-robots-deployed-at-circle-line-stations
Choo , Y(2020) Robots that clean floors, chase pigeons away among technologies being tested at Tampines food centre The Straits Times
Limitations
Schahawi, M., Zingg, W., Vos, M., Humphreys, H., Lopez-Cerero,L., Fueszl, A., Zahar, J. & Presterl. E(2021). Ultraviolet disinfection robots to improve hospital cleaning: Real promise or just a gimmick?
https://aricjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13756-020-00878-4
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