A Disinfecting Robot Fights COVID-19 in the Classroom

When COVID lockdowns began in 2020, students at Purdue University found an inventive way to disinfect both the air and surfaces of large indoor spaces: An autonomous robot.

“We don’t know of any other commercial robots that use air filtration for disinfection,” said Richard Voyles , the Daniel C. Lewis Professor of Robotics in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. “If you’re trying to disinfect a room where humans are present, we’ve shown that this system is more effective than any other option.”