Tripura teacher makes robot that can deliver food, medicines to Covid patients

Agartala, May 19 (PTI): In a bid to prevent doctors and other medical staff from getting infected with coronavirus, a teacher of Tripura University has made a robot from scrap materials that can deliver food and medicines to Covid-19 patients, an official said on Tuesday.

The Covid-19 Warbot’, developed by Dr. Harjit Nath, an assistant professor of the Chemical and Polymer Engineering department of the university, is regulated by a transmitter and a receiver taken out of a toy car and can work for 90 minutes on full charge.

“It is a low-cost robot, which was made from waste materials in laboratory. I also took help from a worker of a local hardware factory, and it was built within a week. I spent only INR 25,000 to manufacture it,” Nath told reporters.

The robot with three 0.5 HP motors and rechargeable batteries is capable of carrying up to 15 kg of food and medicines on a plastic tray mounted on top of it, he said.

“There is a shortage of PPE kits. The frontline health workers such as doctors and nurses are at the risk of getting infected with coronavirus. The robot will help minimise the risk for them,” the IIT-Guwahati pass-out said.

A Kochi-based startup firm, Asimov Robotics, has also made a similar robot to serve patients and minimise risk for healthcare professionals.

“Many more programmes can be added to the robot so that it can perform other jobs such as thermal screening of suspected patients. Many sophisticated gadgets are not available now due to the ongoing lockdown,” he said.

Medical Superintendent of Govind Ballabh Panth (GBP) Hospital, which is the only testing centre for coronavirus in the state, said that robots are being used in hospitals in many states and foreign countries.

“This type of robot can be useful in our hospital. But it should be approved by a technical committee and can be deployed after repeated tests,” he said.