Formed in 2017 as a way to bring automation to industries that were not yet utilizing it, Build With Robots began working with a large paint company to create painting robots. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Albuquerque-based company shifted to development of Breezy One, a fully automated disinfecting robot that could help with safely reopening facilities.
Build With Robots joined with a few other New Mexico companies—Painting Bots, Inc., FatPipe–Rio Rancho, and BioScience Center—to develop disinfection efficiency testing processes for the robots, which were already in use at airports and schools. To obtain analytical help, the companies reached out to the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) program, which paired them with Mark K. Kinnan and Cathryn Mayes at Sandia National Laboratories.
The Sandia team created and implemented a testing matrix from which they could select a range of equipment and protocols. These disinfection processes were tested in a mockup facility to evaluate the robot’s efficiency in close-to-real-world scenario experiments. The processes that worked best were then set for real-world testing and validation.
Thanks to this work, the companies have secured $5 million in funding and have hired 30 new people. Based on these results, the project received the NMSBA’s Honorable Speaker Ben Luján Award for Small Business Excellence for demonstrating the most economic impact. Breezy One is now in use in numerous facilities around the country where it is efficiently eliminating pathogens, allergens, and asthma triggers, in the air as well as on surfaces. Breezy Blue, a smaller Internet of Things (IoT) disinfecting device, is being launched for situations where the larger robot cannot easily fit.