Leading New York State Hospitals Deploy Intelligent New Autonomous Robots to Combat Pandemic

Among the first hospitals in the country to embrace mobile robot for fast, deep, cost-effective disinfecting

TYNGSBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, USA, February 25, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Two leading healthcare providers in New York state recently began sanitizing their facilities in Rochester, New York, and outlying clinics with a new breed of leading edge, autonomous robots, according to Brian Hart, CEO of Black-I Environmental. Black-i’s PureTech brand autonomous robots are programmed to safely sanitize space at half the cost and in half the time of most traditional methods, Hart says.

Hospitals need disinfection around the clock. Traditionally, that job was handled by low-paid workers using water, soap, rags and elbow grease. Now, these workers risk catching the Covid virus and bringing it back to family and friends. Given that labor for such jobs are scarce and getting more so, hospitals, professional cleaning companies, hotels, restaurants, schools, real estate managers and others have been looking for alternatives. Increasingly they are looking to technology to help.

“Autonomous robots are available virtually 24x7, making them perfect for cleaning any indoor space that requires deep and constant sanitizing, which today is virtualy all facilities, "Hart says. “Robots never get sick, never get tired and never ask for a raise. They pay for themselves in a matter of months, while cleaning orders of magnitude better than in the past.”

Black-I Environmental is part of the Black-I Robotics family, which has been in the robotics business since 2008. Its compact, powerful robots -- equipped with computers, cameras, laser radars and collision sensors -- are programmed to move safely on their own through mapped surgical suites, nursing stations, examination rooms and other facilities using ultraviolet light (UV-C) to destroy the DNA of viruses, bacteria, fungi and other pathogens, Hart says. “The robot not only decontaminates surfaces, its HEPA filters purify the air, capturing up to 99.7 percent of all contaminants 0.3 microns or greater.”

Black-I, headquartered in Tyngsboro, MA, has designed and deployed robotic systems for the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Army Corps of Engineers, and a range of well-known universities, including Princeton, and MIT.

Hart, citing studies, says the need for disinfectant robots will continue to grow exponentially because the virus isn’t going away. “Experts agree that the CoV-2 virus will be with us basically forever,” Hart says, quoting Stephane Bancal, the CEO of Moderna, which designed one of the first vaccines. “The virus continues to mutate rapidly, with most variants more deadly and transmissible than the original strain,” Hart explains.

Hart points out that hospitals have had to cut back on many procedures, both “elective” and non-elective due to Covid. “People are afraid to go to the hospital, afraid even when their lives may depend on surgery, chemo or other treatment,” he says, “Besides the devastating effects on the sick, the pandemic has had a profound effect on hospital revenues and healthcare workers’ income."

Black-I worked closely with Rochester-based CleanCraft, the professional cleaning company, to develop and execute a plan that hospital staff embraced. The plan included training by Black-I of CleanCraft staff to program and operate the robot. Training was completed in less than 20 hours.

Want to know more? Deploying autonomous robots in healthcare and other institutions isn’t difficult. Ask for our DISINFECTING YOUR HOSPITAL: A CASE STUDY which details høw the work was done in Rochester, providing a blueprint for bringing the latest technology to bear on the pandemic.

Brian T. Hart
Black-I EnvironmentaI, Inc.
+1 978-703-1236
brian@blackirobotics.com

Black-I Environmental PureTech autonomous ultraviolet (UV-C) robot sterilizing hospitsl nurses' station, Rochester, NY