As of May 15, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has infected >4.5M and caused >306K deaths worldwide. The SARS-CoV-2 virus persists on contaminated objects or surfaces, referred to as fomites, for long times, which may promote virus spread. Effective and efficient disinfection of surfaces in public spaces will play an important role in plans to resume business, education, commerce, and other important activities.

Mass spray disinfection is currently used in multiple countries by employing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). While this strategy has potential benefits, such as the minimization of health risk to personnel performing the disinfection and the potential for large-scale and quick deployments, the effectiveness of mass spray disinfection, especially for COVID-19, has not been systematically examined.

The goal of this NSF-funded project is to identify effective mass spray disinfection strategies for COVID-19, and employ UAVs to implement those strategies. The results of this project will provide effective means to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, as well as other infectious diseases (e.g., influenza), by intercepting virus transmission via fomites. The approach has the potential to be adopted as a general and scalable strategy for sanitization in hospitals, schools, and other public facilities that are susceptible to virus exposure and contact with a large number of people.

Learn more about virus transmission routes.

Learn more about disinfection strategies.

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