Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis said the partnership with Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Robotics highlights how the burgeoning robotics sector in Pittsburgh works alongside the community to solve big-picture problems.
“We have a whole innovation culture that is looking for ways to do things better, especially in the pandemic,” Cassotis said.
She said they were starting to have those conversations internally when Carnegie Robotics CFO Daniel Beaven called her and said he had an idea to retrofit the airport’s existing floor scrubbers with UV lights.
UVC light is the same technology New York City will start using to sanitize its subway system next week. While UVC rays are known to be effective at killing viral particles, including other coronaviruses like MERS, it’s still unknown how effective they are against the virus that causes COVID-19.
Carnegie Robotics developed the AI and robotic systems for the Nilfisk floor scrubbers so they can map and clean an area autonomously. Now, after cleaning the floor surface with water pressure and chemical disinfectant, the UVC light will pass over the airport’s floors for a deeper cleaning.
The partnership with the airport and Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Robotics is a potential model for other airports, and it also highlights Pittsburgh’s status as a robotics hub. It’s the latest sign of the airport’s focus on tech innovation. In 2018, the airport announced it was partnering with Carnegie Mellon University for the Metro21: Smart Cities Institute, to develop tech projects for the aviation industry.
Like other airports, Pittsburgh International has seen a sharp drop-off in flights during the coronavirus pandemic. The number of daily travelers is usually around 13,000, but it has dwindled to a few hundred a day. Many of the shops in the terminals have closed, and a planned $1.1 billion renovation has been put on hold.
According to theverge.com. Source of photo: internet
