The American leader in military robotics has joined forces with the French start-up Shark Robotics to launch a decontamination robot dog.
To fight against Covid-19, Boston Dynamics, leader in military robotics, turns to Shark Robotics, a French start-up specialized in terrestrial robots, to give new missions to Spot, its robot dog. The State of Singapore has been using this robot dog for several months to ensure that walkers in public parks keep their distance.
Created in 2016 by Jacques Topalian, a robotics engineer, and Cyril Kabbara, a former elite military man, Shark Robotics has made a name for Colossus, its mobile firefighting robot, by assisting the firefighters during the Notre-Dame-de-Paris fire. To urgently develop a new robotic disinfection solution, the start-up grafted onto Colossus a microspraying system of disinfected liquid for surfaces and an air purification system using UV-C lamps, which kill pathogenic micro-organisms in suspension. The 220 kilogram mobile robot, called Rhyno Protect Decontamination (RPD) also purifies the air up to 100m3 per hour and kills 99% of microbes in a single pass. RPD can go up stairs while cleaning them, and through doors.
Spot can sneak into places inaccessible to RPD to decontaminate surfaces.
The Spot anti-Covid-19 dog is now marketed by Shark Robotics. Spot is able to decontaminate up to 2 000 m2 in 15 minutes, in any space from schools to hotels, hospitals, company offices. It can be used in remote control or autonomously.
