Using Robots to Clean Public Transit Assets
Post pandemic emphasis on the critical role of public transportation sanitation leads to cleaning robots from SBIR recipient Advent Innovations
THE CHALLENGE
Funding Agency: FTA
Small business: Advent Innovations https://www.adventinnous.com/
Project: Fully Autonomous Omnidirectional Adaptive Robots for the Disinfection and Decontamination of Transit Assets
Principal Investigator: Shawn Beard
Location: Columbia, South Carolina
While public transit vehicle and station sanitation has always been an important part of maintaining a healthy and welcoming public transportation system, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed a critical need for improvements to public transportation sanitation processes as a means for public safety and slowing disease transmission. Daily maintenance and cleaning of public transit infrastructures is vital but can be costly. Manual cleaning is expensive, physically demanding, and increases risk of exposure to disease and health hazards for personnel and passengers.
THE TECHNOLOGY
Advent Innovations, a small business focused on sensors, AI and robotics, seeks to solve this problem by developing robotic cleaning machines that reduce time, effort and costs of traditional manual cleaning methods. Advent Innovations developed two robots, the Yogi-BOTTM and Ether-BotTM, that can disinfect transit assets reducing the manual labor required to maintain transit facilities. Yogi-BOTTM is a robot designed to clean inside of transit vehicles. Ether-BotTM, on the other hand, is designed to clean large areas such as transit centers. Both robots are equipped with liquid disinfectants and methods of disinfection such as UV-C lamps, allowing them to clean a wide variety of transit vehicles and infrastructure. Advent says the first end users would be janitorial staff of transit agencies who currently do manual sanitation in transit stations, buses, and trains. With these robots, janitorial staff will have new tools to safely and efficiently deliver clean and safe systems.
SBIR'S ROLE
Funding from the Federal Transit Administration’s SBIR program has allowed Advent Innovations to further develop its robotics technology while also boosting Advent’s visibility in the commercial market. “Our local transit agencies and the South Carolina Department of Education are interested in pilot testing the robots,” said Dr. Ritubarna Banerjee, President, Advent Innovations. She noted that the SBIR award has helped make Advent Innovations more visible in the disinfection robotics market in the U.S.
THE FUTURE
Advent is currently meeting with potential customers, including local transit agencies, to explore pilot testing opportunities. After pilot testing, Advent’s goal is mass production for moderate size transit agencies. "Being able to see all the progress come together and provide a suitable solution for the hard-working people within the transit facilities is really the best part about our technology," said Corey Leydig, Project Engineer at Advent. Although the technologies are targeted towards public transit agencies, they envision expanding for related use in places such as schools and airport facilities. Ultimately, Advent Innovations aims to reach commercial viability providing innovative sanitation solutions for transit providers.
