BHUBANESWAR: A robot has become a centre of attraction for the patients at the Central Hospital of East Coast Railway (ECoR) here. The MeD Robo has been deployed to assist the hospital staff in serving COVID-19 patients by providing medicines, food and remote assistance without any physical contact.
It is operated through a unique mobile app that has been developed as part of the innovation with the help of WiFi facility. Supported by sensor-based features, it is capable to read patients’ body temperature and transmit the same for display on the mobile phone.
In case of any abnormal high-temperature, the MeD Robo will raise an alarm so as to alert the hospital staff attending to the patients. There is a provision to sanitise hands and a sanitising box with a timer to sanitise mobiles, wallets and newspapers.
“With the help of the robot, doctors, nurses and other medical staff can be prevented from repeatedly wearing PPE kits while entering the coronavirus wards for routine rounds. It will help them to stay away from the risks of contacting novel coronavirus infection from the patients,” said an ECoR official.
The diesel loco shed at Visakhapatnam has fabricated the robot to assist hospital staff to serve COVID patients. The MeD Robo underwent extensive trials and demonstrations before being used at the Central Railway Hospital at Mancheswar. Equipped with one KVA backup power, the robot has been made of stainless sheet, rod, square bars and acrylic sheet in its body and trays along with two-megapixel high definition night vision camera, two-way speaker, circuit for sensor-based hand sanitiser unit, thermal scanner and timer based ultraviolet sanitiser box.
The MeD Robo can move in all directions by monitoring physically or from mobile. It is capable of carrying about 15 kg of items and can be controlled by remote from 30-40 foot distance by seeing its position physically or even in a mobile or desktop computer. The camera has a speaker facility so that doctor and nursing staff can interact with the patient and can advise accordingly.
The movement of the camera to view from different angles can be controlled through mobile or desktop computers. One sensor-based hand sanitizing unit attached with the robot allows the staff and patients to sanitise their hand before and after using Oximeter and other items. The available trays can be used for hand free distribution of food, tiffin, medicines and other items as per the requirement.