Korea telco SK Telecom and Omron Electronics have announced that it has commercialised the world's first 5G-based disinfection robot in a move to automate anti-infection efforts against COVID-19 across the country’s health care facilities.
The telco said it has partnered with Yongin Severance Hospital to deploy the robot, which uses a real-time location system using a 5G network to roam around the hospital on its own and monitor people's temperatures and whether they are wearing masks.
Built with cutting-edge technologies, including 5G, AI, autonomous driving and IoT, the robot carries out diverse activities such as contactless temperature screenings for visitors and disinfection of the building.
Upon detecting visitors, the robot automatically moves towards them to check their body temperatures using a thermal imaging camera. In case the measured temperature is 37.5°C (99.5°F) or higher, it sets off an alarm and alerts the control centre.
Based on this data transmitted over 5G network in real time, SK Telecom will be able to take necessary measures like prohibiting people with suspicious symptoms from entering the building, etc.
In addition, equipped with UV lamps and two automatic floor disinfectant sprayers, the robot automatically disinfects the building. It can achieve 99.9 percent disinfection of 33 square meters of surface areas in just 10 minutes.
Applied with SK Telecom’s self-developed AI-based video analysis solution, the 5G robot will also able to identify places where people are gathered and then move to the location to play a message stressing the importance of social distancing. It will also identify people who are not wearing face masks and request them to wear one.
SK Telecom will ensure greater efficiency in both operation and management of the robot through the application of its big data analytics solution Metatron. Metatron will analyse the robot’s component management data collected via IoT sensors to check the real-time status of the robot and perform predictive maintenance.
SK Telecom and Omron Electronics Korea plan to launch the device in global markets next year.
