Blue Ocean Robotics' "venture factory" designs and supplies UV-D disinfection robot.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals needed a way to disinfect rooms without exposing personnel or patients to harmful pathogens or radiation. The novel coronavirus crisis has rapidly escalated demand for disinfection robots worldwide, but only a few companies were ready to satis that demand.

Blue Ocean Robotics began as a robotics integrator and became a full-service robotics company, designing and developing service robots for the agriculture, construction, healthcare, and hospitality markets. As a “venture factory,” it has created divisions to commercialize its technologies. Its UVD Robots unit first sold the UV-Disinfection robot last year after six years of development.

The UVD robot is an autonomous mobile robot that uses UV-C light to kill up to 99.999% of viruses and bacteria in a patient room in 15 minutes. A Taiwan hospital study conducted over four to six months found that the UVD robot can reduce the number of infections by more than 25%.