Robotic cleaners bring Friarage to forefront of innovation...

DON’T worry, your eyes are not deceiving you – there are now robots assisting with the cleaning at the Friarage Hospital!

Thanks to generous funding from Friends of the Friarage, the Northallerton hospital is now the first in the UK to use Akara UV decontamination units in a ward environment.

Following positive initial trial results, two decontamination robots from Akara Robotics - winners of the best newcomer award at the Infection Prevention Society Conference 2024 - can now frequently be seen in the hospital’s clinical decisions unit, wards and operating theatres as part of the next stage of the clinical evaluation of the technology.

Environmental services teams at the Friarage are currently undergoing training on how to programme the robot and work alongside it.

Working in tandem with the strong team of domestic staff the robots serve as a powerful tool to enable environmental services staff to decontaminate rooms with a quicker turnaround time.

Akara’s robot builds on more than a decade of robotics and artificial intelligence research at Trinity College Dublin. Its unique AI capabilities give the robot the ability to operate autonomously, whereby it can navigate and decontaminate rooms based on a programme of cleaning instructions that it is given.



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