At a time when COVID-19 threatens to affect health workers who work closely with patients, ‘Sanitiser Kunjappan’, a robot, could help disinfect hospital wards and distribute food and medicines to patients.
The robot has been developed by the Fab Lab of Government Engineering College, Thrissur, at a production cost of ₹12,000.
Led by Ajay James, assistant professor, computer science department, students V.S. Saurav, Aswin Kumar, Pranav Balakrishnan, and Cheriyan Francis developed the robot. The same team earlier developed COVID-WISK (Walk-in Sample Kiosk) to enable safe collection of samples of symptomatic people for the Government Medical College Hospital.
The service of the robot was inaugurated at the Government Medical College Hospital, Thrissur, by Minister for Local Self-Governments A.C. Moideen on Saturday. The robot that can disinfect the entire COVID-19 ward without human help.
It has a nozzle that can spray sanitiser to a distance of two metres. The sanitiser tank has a capacity of six litres and can be used for 20 to 25 minutes.
As the robot can carry a weight of up to 27 kg, it can be used for distributing medicines and food. The robot has been designed as an open source project, to which new features can be added.
