The Coronavirus is still spreading like a wildfire and it has already caused global panic with more than 11,000 cases worldwide, China, the country where the disease originates from is under total lockdown especially in the area where the disease started, Wuhan.
The Chinese government is now trying different methods in order to curb the disease from spreading more to others. In order to properly do this, the country had deployed robots to replace humans in order to stop the spread of the disease.
Many robots have already been deployed to numerous hospitals which are tasked with disinfection, food delivery, dispensing drug and remote diagnosis which are all geared towards reducing the workload of medical personnel at the fore-front of the battle against the dangerous virus.
According to reports, about 140 disinfection robots were developed and deployed by Shanghai Dongfulong Technology Co., LTD to the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and other hospitals at the forefront of the epidemic resistance.
The Robots uses Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) Module which is made by Siemens and categorized into two parts namely: vaporized hydrogen peroxide disinfection machines and intelligent sterilization robots. They are all sterilized with hydrogen peroxide steam.
Since it’s connected to the internet, Medical Personnel can remotely control the disinfection robots by using a tablet computer. They can do things such as setting the room sterilization sequence according to the sterilization needs, independently plan the path and avoid obstacles and more. The robots runs on Lithium battery in order to get them charged and can be used continuously overtime. A fully charged disinfection robot can work for about 5 hours straight before the next charging circle.
According to an engineer from Dongfulong, these two artificial intelligence disinfection machines can achieve a 6-log killing effect on microorganisms. 6-log refers to a 99.9999% reduction in bacteria.
Aside that, there have also been more than 30 smart disinfection robots made by the Shanghai Titanium Robot Technology Co., LTD which are meant for isolation ward, ICU, Operating room and fever clinic of six hospitals right in Wuhan Xiehe Hospital and Wuhan Central Hospital.
Titanium’s disinfection robot uses Chloric acid + plasma disinfection method. In the environment of human and machine coexistence, it performs autonomous mobile multi-point disinfection for the environmental surface and air, and the disinfection level reaches 6-log level.
Not only disinfection robots are being deployed to hospitals in Wuhan, the frontline of the disease, other robots such as nursing robots, consultation robots and even transport robots have all been deployed to the help fight against this disease. There are even robots that can deliver materials including food to specific wards.
Robots that can deliver dozens of food items were also deployed. A good example of such would be the Qinglang’s unmanned robot called “Peanut” which helps in delivering foods to those in the quarantine areas in Hangzhou, Shanghai as well as other places.
Aside food, these robots can deliver fruits, minerals, medicines and so much more. Personnel can place meals on the robot’s three-layered tray during mealtimes and enter the room number of the quarantine area on the touch screen. Track the room number to serve the meal and the robot will do just as scheduled.
Qinglang claimed that Peanut (The food delivering robot) is 100% autonomous and is contact-free which means it can deliver food entirely on it’s own without any special human interaction which is an attempt to reduce human-to-human interaction in order to block off the virus from getting contracted by another human.
JD Logistics said it’s working on providing Drones to rural areas such as Hebei, Shaanxi and Jiangsu which are under lockdown. The company also announced it has completed map collection and robot testing of robot distributions in Wuhan.
All this is to show how important technology is helping in fighting against the deadly disease right over in China as the country innovates on a more better ways to approach the deadly virus which is spreading. The most important thing is to ensure it’s isolation and the use of robot could help in achieving that.
