On May 17, 2020, South Central Railway (SCR) zone developed a robotic device, “RAIL-BOT” (R-BOT) to assist in hospital management functions towards patient care in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak. The R-BOT robotic device was developed by Hem Singh Banoth, Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Hyderabad Division, SCR & his team.
Key Points:
i.The R-BOT underwent extensive trial and demonstration before being deployed for use in Central Railway Hospital, Lallaguda, Secunderabad.
ii.About R-BOT: R-BOT is being used to provide medicines, medical accessories and to serve food to the patients, without any need for physical contact. This will enable doctors, nurses and other support medical staff to stay away from the risk of contracting infections.
iii.The R-BOT is operated through a unique mobile application developed as part of the Innovation, supported by Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) facility. The R-BOT holds sensor-based features to read the body temperature of patients and transmit the same for display on mobile phones.
iv.Other features: It is capable of raising an alarm in case of any abnormally high-temperature readings so as to alert the Medics attending to the patients.
v.The R-BOT acts as two-way audio and video communication with recording, facilitating smooth interaction between patients and doctors. It uses infrared technology with an emergency Night lamp and night vision to enable communication even in complete darkness.
vi.The Rail-BOT moves at a speed of 1 kmph (kilometers per hour) and it can carry a load with a capacity of 80 kg (Kilogram). It is capable of functioning continuously for 6 hours on a single charge of battery.
vii.Robots developed in other states: Club First, Jaipur-based company, has developed robots to help the healthcare workers and to contain the spread of the virus. It is the world’s first robot that is based on spine technology which helps robots balance anything it handles. The robot doesn’t follow any line or magnetic path, it self-navigates.
viii.Bhuvanesh Mishra, Managing Director (MD) of Club First, mentioned that the robot can do thermal screening and also identify if a person is wearing a mask or not. He further added that 95 per cent of the robot is made in India.
ix.Mitra robot: A hospital in Bengaluru deployed the ‘Mitra’ robots to check and screen the patients for COVID-19 symptoms. The robots are programmed to interact with people using facial and speech recognition.
x.Further, if the patient’s temperature is normal with no COVID-19 symptoms after screening, the Mitra robot prints an entry pass that has the screening result with their name and picture on it.
xi.Earlier, the Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Cuttack, Odisha, has also developed a service robot to help the workers to combat the virus.
About South Central Railway (SCR):
Headquarters– Rail Nilayam, Secunderabad.
General-Manager (GM)– Gajanan Mallya.
