Fetch Robotics and Piedmont National Partner With Puro Lighting

By AIT News Desk On Jul 17, 2020

Leveraging Next Generation Pulsed Xenon UV technology from Violet Defense, the SmartGuardUV robot neutralizes harmful viruses and bacteria in high-traffic areas and provides real-time disinfection reporting

Fetch Robotics, the leader in cloud robotics and on-demand automation, and automated solutions provider Piedmont National announced the launch of the SmartGuardUV disinfecting autonomous mobile robot (AMR). Purpose built to autonomously disinfect high-traffic areas such as warehouse facilities, retail stores, office spaces and hospital rooms, SmartGuardUV combines the safety and flexibility of the Fetch Robotics cloud robotics platform, the strength of PURO™ Lighting’s pulsed Xenon UV fixtures, powered by Violet Defense™, and the advanced disinfecting reporting of the Piedmont 4Site cloud analytics platform. The result is a completely autonomous, broad spectrum UV disinfection robot that eliminates up to 99.9% of viruses and bacteria with UV-C, UV-B, and UV-A as well as reports on the results of the disinfection.

In an effort to protect employees and customers from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations have implemented routine sanitization procedures to eliminate traces of the novel coronavirus from public spaces. As economies are beginning to re-open, warehouses, factories, distribution centers, and other businesses worldwide are putting in place stringent disinfection protocols to bring business back to near normal levels. Current best practice recommends that in addition to thorough overnight cleaning regimens, high-traffic facilities implement spot cleaning procedures to disinfect spaces between shifts, or after large numbers of people have left rooms. The continued spread of COVID-19 as well as the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria has made demand for scalable, effective automated disinfecting solutions higher than ever.

SmartGuardUV leverages comprehensive mapping technology and 3D camera vision to autonomously direct broad spectrum UV light from a pulsed Xenon lamp – the most comprehensive UV-based disinfecting technology worldwide – to disinfect priority areas within a facility. PURO Lighting’s innovative pulsed Xenon UV lamp fixture, powered by Violet Defense technology, enables the miniaturization of high intensity, targeted UV light that requires as little as 90 seconds to disinfect a 10 foot workstation and as little as six minutes to disinfect priority areas of a personal office. The pulsed Xenon UV lamp technology used in SmartGuardUV AMRs has been tested by independent accredited third-party testing labs, and is registered with the EPA.

“The facilities best prepared to protect workers and customers from COVID-19 are taking extreme precautions when it comes to sanitization, and are placing their trust in automated solutions that can be deployed at any time,” said Fetch Robotics Chief Product Officer Stefan Nusser. “Companies of every size recognize the need for reliable sanitization procedures, and SmartGuardUV provides reliable protection at every hour of the day, without taking employees away from their already existing job responsibilities.”

Built on Fetch’s cloud-based robotics platform, SmartGuardUV can autonomously map and navigate throughout a facility, enter a desired space, activate the pulsed UV light for targeted, comprehensive disinfection, reposition in the space for maximum coverage, disinfect, and then move to the next space without any human intervention. The robot’s built-in motion sensor for automatic shut off prevents unnecessary UV exposure, and facility managers can customize the AMR’s schedules and disinfecting paths, even remotely, as facility needs change. SmartGuardUV has an optional real-time dashboard that provides actionable insights and reporting of disinfection data including date, time, location, disinfection duration, cleaning performance and photographic evidence of the disinfection or what prevented the robot from doing the disinfection.

“Legacy autonomous disinfection robotic solutions can only operate for 2 to 2.5 hours on a single charge whereas the PURO pulsed xenon light engines on the SmartGuardUV AMR precisely target UV rays at high touch surfaces so are able to operate for 8 to 10 hours on a single charge,” said John Garlock, CSO of Piedmont National. “We believe this combination of targeted disinfection within a space and longer operational time results in an autonomous disinfection robot that is much more effective than other autonomous robots.”

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of Fetch’s recent release of Breezy One, a chemical disinfection AMR designed for large spaces over 100,000 square feet. Fetch’s disinfecting AMR partners address the full range of disinfection needs – deep cleaning with the Breezy One and targeted cleaning with SmartGuardUV.