Robots Join the Fight against COVID-19 in India

India has become the world’s top second country with the most coronavirus cases being diagnosed right now, after the United States, even though the surge of new coronavirus cases has been reduced in multiple countries worldwide. To counter this rapidly escalating issue, only a few hospitals across the country were able to facilitate their inpatients with the facility of robots, which helps in playing a major role in the fight against COVID-19 transmission in a community.

Across the world, the number of coronavirus infections has reached 52,490,632, out of which have died after suffering from a critical condition caused by its symptoms. In India, the total infection count has reached 8,690,621, with 128,204 deaths. 8,070,817 were able to successfully able to be treated back to their optimum health.

Developing robots amid coronavirus surge

The Robots would be able to provide basic tasks in connecting the infected patients in isolation with their loved ones along with assisting hospital healthcare staff on the front lines during the coronavirus pandemic in the fight against COVID-19.

The Robotics have been developed by a  Bangalore based tech firm, as they were able to design three different robots that were able to carry out basic tasks like disinfecting hospital surfaces with time intervals or answering some patient questions along with enabling direct video call transmission to their respective doctor for consultation.

The tech firm has only been able to develop and deploy eight robots to fight against COVID-19 escalation in India, out of which the most popular model being ‘Mitra’, which translated in Hindi, means friend. The retail cost of the Mitra robot is about $10,000. The robots have a camera embedded in their head region, due to which they are able to use facial recognition software that allows the robot to recall the names, faces, and case history of all patients in the ward.

The Mitra Robot has the ability to freely roam around the hospital premises independently while helping inpatients to connect with their families, friends, and doctors via camera sensors and video screen installed in its chest cavity.

Mitra robots could help majorly in the fight against COVID-19 by doing basic activities to help limit human contact. Mitra could also become a doctor or nurse’s assistant to take vitals and other reading along with periodically reminding the patient to take their medication.

Robots playing a major role in the fight against COVID-19

The CEO of the robot making company Invento Robotics stated that it is ironic that robots are currently being used in various countries globally amid the coronavirus pandemic to bring humanity to the hospitals. In the north Indian city of Noida, Yatharth Hospital has bought two Mitra robots to help fight against COVID-19 and have one of them stationed at the main entrance of the hospital to test incoming individuals for coronavirus symptoms and the other one to the doctors in intensive care Units.

Inside the Intensive care unit, Mitra helps in connecting the admitted infected patients with their family members through live video streaming and allowing the patient family to take a small survey of the patient surrounding environment to ease their concerns regarding the environment being provided to the patient.

The patients tend to get happy and show a positive energy whenever the Mitra robot visits them in the intensive unit. The patients are also often seen to be taking selfie portraits with the Mitra. The CEO of Invento Robotics said that the robots made by their firm use best in class security for live video feedback between patients, doctors, and their families.

For a complete and thorough consultation with the doctor, a specialized private booth has also been built around the robot, which allows the patient to talk privately during their video call.

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