COVID19: Medical Robots working alongside Hospital Staff
With the rampant spread of the pandemic, personal hygiene, sanitation and large scale disinfection have become the need of the hour. These indigenous robots are assisting doctors, nurses and other hospital staff to ensure all hospital activities run smoothly.
Airlens Minus Corona
The novel coronavirus can be deactivated using an alcohol-based sanitizer or washing your hands with soap and water. At an individual level, these are right solutions, but scaling up to the size of a city makes it impractical. Debayan Saha and Dr Shashi Ranjan, alumni of IIT Kharagpur and AIIMS respectively, have developed a device that purifies the air and eliminates the threat of the novel coronavirus. The duo in their venture, PerSapien Innovations, have used ionised water droplets released in the air to oxidise the viral proteins into non-harmful molecules. The water droplets are ionised using corona discharges, and these are ready to sterilise entire cities.
Dr Shashi Ranjan augmented the technology on the scientific research he did at NUS, Singapore. The team claims their technology uses an optimal combination of electric energy and water atomisation techniques to induce a charge on the water droplets, thereby creating oxidative ‘Hydroxyl Radicals’. To travel the streets, they have developed a “Robo-Sapien” machine that can go to hospitals, bus stops, railway stations and other public places to sterilise surfaces which may cause the spread of coronavirus. The team has also come up with devices that can be used for buildings like homes and hospitals.
Minus Corona UV Bot
The company PerSapien has also developed a device which is an ultraviolet light (UV C-254nm) based robot that will enable sterilisation of hospital corridors, wards, Intensive Care Unit (ICUs) and patient rooms without exposing anybody to the contaminated environment. It comprises a UV-C lamp, mounted on a wheeled robotic platform. It is equipped with a camera that which gives the perspective from the driver’s seat onto a digital screen and is operated (front-back, left-right) with a remote control to avoid any obstacles.
Ultraviolet (UV) sterilisation technology has been proven to be extremely effective in killing viruses and micro-organisms of any kind which may remain on surfaces even after the minimum number of standard cleaning, Debayan Saha informs.
The developers were inspired by a similar product made by a Denmark company called ‘UVD Robots’ who sold their robots to hospitals in Wuhan, China, during the coronavirus outbreak there at $80,000–90,000. The UVD Robot is used as part of the regular hospital cleaning cycle. It aims at preventing and reducing the spread of infectious diseases, virus, bacteria, and other types of harmful organic micro-organisms in the environment by breaking down their DNA-structure using powerful ultraviolet rays. Minus Corona UV Bot would be priced much lower than this, stated PerSapien.
ZAFI and ZAFI Medic
Propeller Technologies, a Tiruchi based software company, unveiled its Zafi and Zafi Medic robots on March 29 at the city’s Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital, equipped to deliver food and medicines to COVID-19 patients under quarantine. These robots are voice interactive and assist medical staff in bringing the required items without any human contact. Zafi has a payload of eight kilograms and can act as a medical assistant for contact-less consultations. Zafi Medic is a robotic rover, having a range of one kilometre and a payload capacity of twenty kilograms. It is designed to transport items within the hospital building and even has an option of a smartphone-based control.
KARMI
Kochi-based ASIMOV Robotics debuted its KARMI-Bot, an intelligent service robot for isolation wards developed under the MAKE IN INDIA initiative, with the added feature of being able to disinfect the premises using ultra-violet radiation. KARMI-Bot is capable of autonomously navigating inside the isolation ward to transport and dispense food and medical supplies for patients under care and thereby minimizing human involvement. They also can converse with the patients as well as initiate video conferencing between patients and the human caregiver from a remote location. The robot is capable of disinfecting the used items during the return journey to home station.
KARMI-Bot comes with an android application to monitor and control the robot in manual mode from a distance. Users can configure the destination points using a user interface from a built-in touch screen and remote monitor. In addition, KARMI-Bot is equipped with high power detergent spray for cleaning the infected areas by controlling from a remote location.
The self-charging KARMI-Bot has a maximum payload of 20 kilograms and a power backup that lasts up to 5 hours. The company grabbed attention on social media recently with a video of its two Sayabot androids dispensing cleaning materials and displaying information related to the coronavirus.
Sona 2.5
Sona 2.5 is a humanoid service robot developed by Club First Technologies. It can navigate in any complex environments autonomously using laser-based systems and uses modern technology to interact with users efficiently. Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Government Hospital, Jaipur, successfully tested the locally-manufactured Sona 2.5 to deliver food and medicines to Coronavirus patients.
Looking Ahead…
The use of automation in these trying times will benefit the medical society and administration in keeping a check on the spread of the virus. As a nation with plentiful innovative technologists, contributing whatever possible in the safest manner can sometimes go a long way.
