Kerala COVID hospitals introduce robotic trolleys to serve medicines, foods to patients

Amid growing concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus, robotic trolleys have been introduced in a few COVID hospitals of Kerala. They have been deployed to serve medicines and food to the patients admitted to the COVID wards thereby minimising direct exposure of the health workers with those who have contracted the pandemic.

Kannur (Kerala): The work of the health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic deserves a special mention and applause, among others.

The health workers, including the nurses, doctors, paramedics and even the cleaning staff, perform their duties without fail in the COVID wards risking their own lives.

The robotic trolley developed by the research wing of Chemberi Vimal Jyothi Engineering College in Kannur can help by sharing the workload and relieve the stress of the health staff in COVID wards.

The robotic trolley has been designed to serve medicines and food to the patients admitted to the COVID wards thereby minimising direct exposure of the health workers with those who have contracted the pandemic.

The robotic trolley was initially deployed in Anjarakkandy COVID hospital in Kannur on a trial basis.

On completion of the successful trial period, now, the service of the robotic trolleys has been extended to the COVID-19 wards in Thalassery General Hospital and Pariyaram Medical College Hospital in Kannur district.

Within a few days, the automatic trolley assumed the role of a special hospital ward staff.

The remote control operated robotic trolley was designed and developed by the team led by Sunil Paul, a Robotics Expert and Associate Professor for Mechanical Engineering with the Chemberi Vimal Jyothi Engineering College.

The trolley has three racks to hold the medicines, food and water to be served to the COVID patients.

It can be operated using the remote control from a distance of up to 1 kilometre.

Besides, the patients can talk to the staff face to face through the video call facility on the tab fixed on to the trolley and communicate in case of any needs.

The staff can also give directions regarding the medicines through the video call.

As the trolley design and operation has been approved, the developers are all set to make more robotic trollies with advanced facilities.

Vimal Jyothi College had developed Automatic sanitiser dispenser and the mini portable ventilator successfully.

The robotic trolleys have become a very useful robotic invention to help in overcoming the rare and unprecedented situation we face due to the COVID outbreak.