HONG KONG -- SoftBank Robotics will inject its local operations in Hong Kong and Macao into a new joint venture with a Hong Kong biomedical company that manufactures disinfection robots used to sterilize the city's train cars. The venture will then launch a new cleaning robot tailored for commercial spaces including offices, hotels and shopping malls later this month.
Lewis Ho, chief executive of Hong Kong biotechnology company Avalon SteriTech, told Nikkei Asia that the unit of Japan's SoftBank Group decided to work with his company to develop the new disinfection robot in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has raised requirements for sterilization in public places.
