LG 클로이드

Air purifiers and sterilizers require filter replacement, leading to maintenance costs and waste issues. Additionally, sterilizing airborne viruses in hospitals requires manual UV irradiation, which is inefficient. The need for a combination of filterless sterilization technology and a mobile platform has emerged.

LG CLOi applies plasma and photocatalyst fusion technology that achieves 99% sterilization of airborne germs and 70% odor removal without filters [65]. This eliminates the need for replacement filters, reducing maintenance costs and preventing secondary contamination (germ propagation on the contaminated filter itself).

Furthermore, by mounting this module on LG's autonomous driving robot (CLOi) platform, it manages air quality by autonomously moving around the space. It seeks out necessary locations in hospital rooms, offices, etc., to sterilize and deodorize, minimizing human intervention. The filterless + mobile robot combination breaks the limitations of existing air purifiers.

Hospitals, nursing homes, and other medical facilities (B2B), as well as schools, airports, and other multi-use facilities (B2B) are the main customers. Companies and institutions where the importance of air sterilization has increased since COVID-19 can adopt it.

In the B2B market, it can pioneer a new area as an air conditioning solution combined with a robot-as-a-service. Linked to LG Electronics' CLOi robot business, there is a high possibility of overseas expansion as a quarantine robot.

However, it is still difficult for general household use due to the high price of the robot, but if the technology is accumulated, it can be miniaturized to create derivative products such as household filterless air purifiers.

As a product that meets the post-pandemic era, it has attracted attention at CES as a convergence case of digital health and robots. In particular, the fact that "there are no filters, so there is no waste" is considered innovative [66].

However, it is still at the concept prototype level, so marketability has not been verified. The judges acknowledge the meaning, but point out that actual sterilization performance verification and cost issues are challenges.