Pratt Miller Mobility is an engineering and product development company that serves the spectrum of the mobility industry, from the world’s largest automotive OEM’s to budding start-ups, commercial truck to powersports – to bring their vision into reality. With roots in motorsports, the company is properly equipped to deliver what it describes as “ingenious solutions” to its clients' most challenging problems and wildest ideas.

In the third edition of “Conversations with AUVSI,” Christopher Andrews, director of Mobility & Innovation at Pratt Miller Mobility, took the time to answer some questions about Pratt Miller Mobility’s background, its Large Area Autonomous Disinfecting (LAAD) vehicle, and how the LAAD vehicle performed during a week-long demonstration in July at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This interview was conducted in mid-August.

Can you start off by providing some background information about Pratt Miller Mobility and the work that you all do?

Pratt Miller is a leading engineering and product development company. Our winning roots in motorsports enable us to deliver ingenious solutions to our clients' most challenging problems and wildest ideas. That history enables our team of highly adaptive innovators to apply speed, agility and engineering expertise to every project. PME swiftly transforms what's possible in our clients' industries by taking what they do to the next level and changing their world for the better. Our Mobility team has a long and proud history working alongside the world’s leading automotive, commercial truck, powersports and new mobility OEM’s. With our existing portfolio and sense of mission, Pratt Miller is the preferred Research and Innovation partner and niche-production supplier to the most innovative mobility companies in the world.

What is the backstory behind your Large Area Autonomous Disinfecting (LAAD) vehicle? Was the vehicle developed specifically to address the COVID-19 pandemic, or did you convert another vehicle and adapt it to have disinfectant capabilities?

Our team has extensive experience in electrification, controls and robotics/autonomy, including our flexible robotics platforms that we are currently providing to the defense industry. Late last year, we started on the path to investigate niche market solutions that could be solved from this history and expertise. With the COVID-19 pandemic having such a drastic impact on the world, we were able to work with partners in the disinfecting industry to develop this unique solution of LAAD-V and spin up a solution very quickly. At our core, our team has the heart of a race team and the ability to adapt to change very rapidly, along with providing initial prototypes with high quality and quickly.

What are some characteristics that make the LAAD vehicle really unique?

The unique aspects of the LAAD-V are that it can utilize a multi-head electrostatic sprayer array to cover a large area with high quality coverage. It provides documentation and reporting through the automation and connected systems. It reports exactly what areas were covered and if there were any areas that were not able to be disinfected due to any unique constraints, i.e., did someone leave a mop in an isle that prevented the LAAD-V from going down an isle? The LAAD-V also has the ability to carry 7 gallons of disinfecting material, allowing for a very long run time between refills.

In collaboration with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and PlanetM, you all demonstrated the LAAD vehicle at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan in July; what did the process look like to land this demonstration?

We are very thankful and always happy to work with MEDC and Plant M. We were in contact early, when they redirected some funding form current projects to this COVID-19 solutions funding. We were able to work with them both to go through multiple target pilot locations before landing on the innovative team at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids Michigan (GRR). This team was very excited to be a leader in protecting their travelers and they were able to move very quickly also to scope and approve the project. There were multiple calls/tele-meetings and a visit to Grand Rapids that allowed us to get the project scoped. The MEDC and Plant M then approved this along with their other projects within a week. The entire project was only 2 weeks long. It is amazing how quickly we were all able to bring this together.

How did the demonstration go?

The demonstration and pilot came off very well in Grand Rapids. The GRR board, leadership, and working team were on site, as well as the Planet M team and our Pratt Miller Mobility team for the media day. The LAAD-V proved itself and its design intent features by successfully disinfecting the airport, and also providing critical information on the business case value for the unit and value to large area facility leaders.

What kind of feedback did you all receive during and following the demonstration? Was there any feedback that you all received that will lead to adjustments or improvements of the vehicle?

We did receive excellent feedback, from ways to improve our mapping and programing for large areas and seating layout best practices working with the GRR team, to improved nozzle designs, wet out times for disinfecting materials, and overall how to provide value and efficiency improvements for the airport staffing.

What’s next for Pratt Miller Mobility and the LAAD vehicle?

We are in discussions with many of North America’s largest cleaning and disinfecting companies, as well as high profile large area facilities in working toward additional disinfecting deployments. We are looking forward to a very busy year and into next year for this technology, as we believe this new level of disinfecting becomes the new standard in the future that allows our society to have confidence in their daily lives for years to come.