Science fiction or science fact?
Robotics could be the future of sanitizing the courthouse
Anderson County Commission heard a proposal Monday night that sounded like something out of a Ray Bradbury novel.
Science fiction could become science fact thanks to high school students.
Anderson County Attorney Jay Yeager told Commission robotics could be a cheap and effective way to sanitize the Anderson County Courthouse and that it could become a reality sooner rather than later.
Yeager explained ultra violet (UV) lights have been found to be successful in killing almost 100-percent (“99.7 or 99.8 … just really effective”) of virus microbes. Yeager said there has been discussion of letting robotics carry out such tasks.
The county attorney said he pursued the notion and approached the robotics teams at Anderson County’s three high schools.
“Clinton High School’s robotics teacher was particularly enthused,” Yeager said.
The concept is simple: Place a UV lighting system on a robot and turn it loose in the hallways of the courthouse.
Yeager said the courthouse floorplan is “ideal” for such a system to work. He said the robot would work similar to a robotic home vacuum cleaner, noting a pattern would be established, or programmed, for the robot to follow.
The big question, so it seems, is if the county does choose to employ a robotics cleaning system, how will it select a particular system?
Yeager said there is a VEX Robotics Competition later in the school year.
Would the county select the winner of the state competition?
Or will the county hold its own competition among the three high schools in the county: Anderson County, Clinton and Oak Ridge?
Yeager said if the county held a competition among the three high schools in the county, outside judges would have to be brought in for the competition.
Anderson County Commission voted unanimously to forward the suggestion to the county’s next Operations Committee meeting in October to start the process of determining whether the county wants to go with a robotics sanitizing plan, and how to pick its sanitizer.