Step aside, Roomba.
Last week, a new recruit joined the army battling covid transmission, with tech innovators Nanoveu launching what they say is the world’s first “disinfection robot”.
Looking a bit like R2D2 with a tiny Hills hoist on top, this bad boy trundles around up to 20,000m2 of floor space on just 16L of Nanoveu’s “e-water”, spraying it out as a fine mist.
E-water is reportedly chemical and alcohol-free, pH neutral, safe to inhale – just in case you wanted to try – and causes no eye or skin irritation. It’s even halal-certified to boot. So, while that’s great news to folks with allergies, what hideous, pandemic-causing, mutating coronavirus is going to be fussed by something that sounds like you could throw it in a cocktail?
Well, hold up. E-water is also proven effective in trashing viruses, according to Nanoveu, inactivating 99.93% of SARS-CoV-2 after 30 minutes, and more than 99.99% of feline coronavirus and 99.86% of Influenza A within 30 seconds.
E-water’s a bit like hypochlorous acid (HOCl), says Nanoveu’s CCO, Tom Apelaide – and according to the folks at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, HOCl is billed as 100 times more powerful than bleach when it comes to fighting bacteria.
The bug-fighting bot was trialled, to rave reviews, at several hotels in Singapore where you can score considerable brownie points both with your customers and the government if you badge yourself as an “SG Clean”-certified hotel. And the machines are expected to show up in Australia before too long too.
So, we’ve got a disinfectant-spraying bot that will roll around, keeping your hotel or office squeaky clean and covid-resistant. What’s not to love?
Well, we’ve all seen the Terminator movies. Once this little guy figures out how to load something a bit stronger than e-water in the tank, then victory to the machines is just around the corner.
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And let’s face it, the human race has shown itself to be pretty dim in the past couple of years, isn’t it time we gave someone else a go at world domination? Hasta la vista, baby.
If something makes you giggle amid the impending apocalypse, flick it to felicity@medicalrepublic.com.au before it’s all over.
