Airport to use autonomous robots to blast floors with UVC light

With coronavirus keeping travelers at home, one airport is taking spring cleaning to the next level with a pair of robots.

Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), working with Carnegie Robotics, will use autonomous machines equipped with UVC light to kill microbes. The robots will first scrub floors in high-traffic areas. Then they will emit ultraviolet rays to sanitize them even further.

While no studies have proven UVC light kills coronavirus, experts assume that it does, since it's been used to break down other viruses like the one that causes SARS.

It's similar to the cleaning method the New York subway system is using to disinfect a few trains, but PIT has two robots to help with the task. Specifically, the machines are modified Nilfisk Liberty SC50 autonomous scrubber/dryers. They are similar to cleaning bots found in hospitals and other commercial spaces. Think of a giant Roomba that can scrub and dry instead of vacuum.

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The robot's battery lasts for six hours and it holds enough water for two hours of cleaning. Cameras on the robots make sure they don't hit anything and stay on the programmed cleaning course.

The best part: The robots are fully autonomous. So they can navigate the airport without humans controlling them.

The airport is testing the bots in its "central core" terminal and its 10,000 square-foot X-Bridge lab, complete with a mock boarding area. PIT hopes to incorporate the machines into the regular airport cleaning process, so eventually the bots could clean more than floors by adding surfaces like handrails and elevator buttons to their repertoire.

PIT officials said air travel is down 90 percent since the coronavirus outbreak. This could be a small step toward getting people to feel safe at airports again.