Evaluation of surface sampling for Bacillus spores using commercially available cleaning robots.

Five commercially available domestic cleaning robots were evaluated on their effectiveness for sampling aerosol-deposited Bacillus atrophaeus spores on different indoor material surfaces. The five robots tested include three vacuum types (R1, R2, and R3), one wet wipe (R4), and one wet vacuum (R5). Tests were conducted on two different surface types (carpet and laminate) with 10(6) colony forming units of B. atrophaeus spores deposited per coupon (35.5 cm × 35.5 cm). Spores were deposited on the center surface (30.5 × 30.5 cm) of the coupon's total surface area (71.5 × 71.5 cm), and the surfaces were sampled with an individual robot in an isolation chamber. Chamber air was sampled using a biofilter sampler to determine the potential for resuspension of spores during sampling. Robot test results were compared to currently used surface sampling methods (vacuum sock for carpet and sponge wipe for laminate). The test results showed that the average sampling efficacies for R1, R2, and R3 on carpet were 26, 162, and 92% of vacuum sock sampling efficacy, respectively. On laminate, R1, R2, R3, R4, and R5 average sampling efficacies were 8, 11, 2, 62, and 32% of sponge wipe sampling efficacy, respectively. We conclude that some robotic cleaners were as efficacious as the currently used surface sampling methods for B. atrophaeus spores on these surfaces.