Aerial robot developed for automated disinfection

The Covid-19 pandemic has generated an unprecedented health crisis and has fully impacted industrial activity in all sectors.

Prevent the spread of the virus through new protocols to ensure safety health is the main objective in this new scenario that requires everyday new control measures and more actions in this regard.

The PrevenZAL project arises in this context, whose main objective is the design and development of an aerial robot that allows the automated disinfection of coronavirus from containers and palletised merchandise in the so-called Logistics Activity Zones (LAZ), which are specialised areas in merchandise storage and distribution activities, both for domestic market and for international trade.

The aerial robot will be 100% Spanish because it will have technology developed by the Advanced Center for Aerospace Technologies (CATEC) and the Airvant company, both based in the Aerospace Technology Park, Aeropolis in Seville.

This robotic system will be agile, efficient and easy to implement, and it will be a new containment and security measure for the rest of the supply chain, in order to avoid new virus outbreaks.

CATEC will be responsible for the design and development of smart navigation algorithms that will cover the advanced features of the aerial robot, and it will also support the mission interface design and supervision of the drone in testing validation and demonstration in LAZ.

Airvant brings its experience as a technology-based company specialised in the logistics sector, for which it designs high added value solutions through the application of drones.

The company will be in charge of carrying out the tasks associated with the identification of system requirements and will configure the disinfection protocols and standards that will be applied to the LAZ. In addition, it will perform the flights and tests in real environments to validate the new disinfection procedures and mission system developed.

The PrevenZAL project is funded by the Spanish Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), to date one of the only four projects funded by the CDTI for the fight against Covid-19.

Work is already underway on the design and development of a first basic prototype that could be ready in a month. Another much more advanced prototype would be launched early next year.