The territory-wide sewage surveillance programme in Hong Kong combated COVID-19 by detecting viral signals in sewage samples collected from manholes to assist anti-epidemic measures, and brought about significant socio-economic benefits.
In view of the lack of suitable sampling devices in the market, which are typically bulky in size, for effective application in Hong Kong to collect sewage samples under an intensive sampling schedule, this project invented a lightweight, compact sampling robot that could be easily mounted underneath an existing manhole cover via a “connection device” to automatically collect time-proportional composite sewage samples, without affecting road-surface traffic, at the same time essentially saving setup time and minimising the manpower required during the process.
After installation, the sampling robot will collect sewage samples automatically with customisable control for sampling activities, and real-time feedback collection via Mobile App and Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT). The simple and compact design of the sampling robots also made mass production in low cost possible for large-scale implementation at the 154 designated stationary sampling sites covering 93% of Hong Kong’s total population.
The sampling robot constituted a significant part in the sewage surveillance programme that has helped Hong Kong tide over the COVID-19 epidemic, and has greatly enhanced the city’s resilience against public health crisis.
