#United Airlines using robots to disinfect planes in fight against COVID-19

The newest addition to United Airlines’ COVID-19 cleaning team is a 100-pound germ-killing robot.

MicroSonic’s NovaRover machine will soon be spraying anti-microbial chemicals on United planes at 10 American airports, the airline announced Wednesday.

NovaRover “is designed to apply a super fine mist… that coats all surfaces in a 12-foot radius with a single spray,” United said in a statement.

The robot features six nozzles pointing in six different directions, on a pole about six feet above the ground.

“It actually creates a very very super fine mist, which gets a better even coverage of the coating over all the surfaces of the airplane,” United’s Director of Operations Policy, Scott Hildebrand, says in a video demonstration.

The germ-blasting chemical, Zoono Microbe Shield, “forms a protective barrier that resembles a bed of microscopic pins,” according to the video demo.

Those pins “attract bacteria and germs, puncturing them on contact,” it explains.

Airplanes will get a once-over with NovaRover every seven days — on top of United’s existing cleaning regiment, United said.

But the efficacy of the Zoono Microbe Shield is uncertain, despite its creator’s claims.

An EPA rep told ABC News that the product has only been confirmed to be effective against mold, mildew and algae.

“The EPA has not authorized any residual or long lasting efficacy claims for this product,” the rep told the outlet.

Zoono Microbe Shield is classified under the EPA’s “lowest level of toxicity,” but ABC medical constributor Dr. Jay Bhatt warns it “can be irritating to the respiratory tract.”

NovaRover is already in use at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, and will soon be spraying airplanes at United’s others American hubs in Boston, Cleveland and Las Vegas.