Remote-controlled robots will soon provide food and medicine to COVID-19 patients in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand – an initiative taken to ensure safety of doctors and health workers, officials said on Tuesday. Developed by West Singhbhum Deputy Development Commissioner Aditya Ranjan, these robots, called COBOT-Robotics, will be functional in at least one Government hospital of the district, they added.
Thirty-year-old Ranjan completed his engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, and is currently posted in West Singhbum as DDC. With an intent to save lives, he started working on the project after the Coronavirus pandemic hit the world. "I used to participate in robotics contests back in college. This robot will provide food, medicine and water to the patients so that doctors don't have to enter the isolation ward that often," Ranjan told The Pioneer.
Not only this, the robots will also facilitate communication between doctors and patients. Cameras have been fitted on the bots to allow communication between patients and doctors through the machine, said Ranjan. "For example, if a patient wants water, he can directly say it to the robot, and the doctor will be able to see and hear the patient on his phone through the camera fit on the robot," he added.
The robots, Ranjan said, will also prevent wastage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits – a protective cover that health workers wear while visiting isolation wards for COVID-19 patients. In a recent interview, Chief Minister Hemant Soren said that Jharkhand demanded 75,000 PPE kits and got only 5000. The entire country is facing a shortage of PPE kits, and the robots might help the Government manage patients better with the limited resources, sources said. "The robot cannot replace doctors. A doctor has to go to the ward in order to check patients. However, it can do minor tasks that are being done by health workers and also doctors in some hospitals and reduce the risk of transmission of the virus," Ranjan said.
As of now, the State has only one such robot. However, Ranjan said that he can make more robots as per the demand. West Singhbhum, the district where the robot will be used for the first time, has not reported any case of COVID-19 so far. However, the number of patients in the State has increased manifold in April.
By Tuesday afternoon, at least 24 cases of COVID-19 were reported in the State. Out of these patients, at least two died in the past one week. While no doctor or health worker has tested COVID-19 positive in the State so far, such incidents have been reported from different parts of the country. The robots created by Ranjan can be used in other states too if there is a need, Government sources said.