A Method of Ultraviolet-C Surface Irradiation Simulation and Evaluation

Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) is getting popular as a surface disinfection method. UVGI inactivates pathogens by exposing surfaces to high-power ultraviolet-C (UVC) radiation. The disinfection performance is commonly quantified by the radiation dose received by the targeted surfaces and the irradiation coverage. The radiation dose received by a point is commonly sensed by installing a discrete sensor at that point. Thus, to measure coverage, one has to use multiple sensors or take repeated measurements, which leads to the measurements being costly and impractical. We present a method of UV-C irradiation simulation by modeling the UVGI system as a three-dimensional light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor and representing the environment as a voxel map. This method allows us to simulate dose measurements at every point in the environment's surfaces and calculate the irradiation coverage. Our implementation in the Gazebo simulator and Robot Operating System (ROS) framework is publicly available on our GitHub. This method enables static and mobile UVGI systems planning using a digital twin of the working environment. This method can also be easily extended for other light-based simulation purposes.