BALTO: A BIM-Integrated Mobile Robot Manipulator for Precise and Autonomous Disinfection in Buildings against COVID-19

Abstract

We present a novel mobile robot manipulator named BALTO, which can precisely and autonomously disinfect critical items of buildings, yet be easily deployed in different environments by non-expert operators. Conventional approaches based on greedy disinfection actions can be dangerous for surrounding humans, or provide non-controlled coverage of critical items such as door-handles, push-bars or switches. Other robotic solutions providing precision disinfection can require time-consuming geometric and semantic mapping of the environment, placement of non-natural landmarks, or the presence of an operator on-site for programming to adapt to the use case. Our approach is different: we integrate preliminary knowledge of the building within the robot control system itself, using Building Information Modelling (BIM) data readily available from modern construction processes. BIM models completely describe a building and its components with the corresponding geometric and semantic data. We use these data to provide the robot with the components to disinfect and their location, as well as the description of the environment in which it operates, without requiring any prior mapping procedure. Precise disinfection actions are enabled by an automatic calibration procedure based on a learned 3D model of the target. We finally present results of experiments performed in operational environment that verify the effectiveness of our proposed solution.