Pittsburgh International Airport to use UV-beaming robots for disinfecting

Robots beaming out ultraviolet lights soon will be disinfecting floors and handrails at Pittsburgh International Airport to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The airport has been working with Lawrenceville-based Carnegie Robotics to mount ultraviolet lights on robotic floor scrubbers to clean the terminal for more than a year, Allegheny County Airport Authority spokesman Bob Kerlik said.

But the coronavirus pandemic prompted officials to add ultraviolet lights to the system.

“Passengers don’t just want to see a clean airport — they want to know it’s clean and they want to know it’s safe,” Katherine Karolick, senior vice president of Information Technology for Pittsburgh International Airport, told the airport’s in-house news service Blue Sky. “Ultraviolet robots have been used in hospitals as a way to disinfect and kill microorganisms, so it is definitely something that makes sense for an airport.”

The UVC rays are bright enough to penetrate and damage the DNA of dangerous “superbug” bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, known as MRSA, and Clostridium difficile, or C.diff, UPMC doctors have said.

Amid concerns during the covid-19 pandemic, the airport worked with Carnegie Robotics to add the cleaning lights to the robots. Other airports across the country use robotic cleaners, but Pittsburgh is thought to be the first in the country to use the UV technology, Kerlik said.

The light may also be used to clean other high-touch areas like handrails on escalators and people movers and elevator buttons.

“The Airport Authority is always at the forefront of technologies and, in this case, is using these Carnegie Robotics innovations to protect passengers and staff and enhance the travelers’ experience,” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said in a statement.

It makes sense for the airport to be used to test the technology, Carnegie Robotics Chief Financial Officer Daniel Beaven told Blue Sky.

“Our No. 1 priority in this testing, however, is to understand how effective the addition of UVC is as a disinfectant in combination with Nilfisk’s scrubber.”

The scrubbers scour the floor surface with 88 pounds per square inch of water pressure. Chemical disinfectant can be added to the process for a deeper clean, and the UV rays then pass over, creating three different levels of cleaning for the surface.

The covid-19 pandemic has caused a more-than-90% drop in passenger traffic. The airport is banking that these disinfecting measures can help it rebound.

“We know that restoring confidence in travel is going to be key to the industry recovery. That’s why we’re partnering with world-leading Pittsburgh technology companies to help develop solutions,” Pittsburgh International Airport CEO Christina Cassotis said in a statement.

The scrubbers are expected to be incorporated into the airport’s cleaning routines soon, Kerlik said.