In a few months the 19-COVID pandemic borders and oceans crossed to kill thousands of disgusting to expect millions more to the economic and personal chaos of closures and lockdowns force. But as the world’s infection numbers are on the rise, the crisis has also given to acts of ingenuity. The pandemic has fixed both for an effective vaccine and the extensive testing and responsive to a global race that will be needed before the work can open safe again. Vaccines and tests are important, but they are not the only front on which to fight the virus. In the face of imminent danger, scientists have fluctuated from other projects and to pool their resources towards the place aimed at reducing the infection and to protect life. Chief among these are tools that make it cleaner, safer places for patients and their treatment, and that the crushing demands of health workers in this crisis alleviate set. There is no magic wand the progress of COVID-19, but it can stop many small acts of creativity and collaboration to save lives. The Irish robots Conor McGinn is a robotics professor at Trinity College Dublin. McGinn and his colleagues at the Center and Trinity Robotics Innovation Lab to understand how robots can best assist the elderly in nursing homes. The signature product of its spin-off, Akara robotics laboratory and is Stevie, a social robot top 4-foot-7-inch, whose main function is to reduce loneliness. In experiments in the United States, Britain and elsewhere, the stories of robots programmed to say, the bingo numbers called, lead sing-alongs and other moral-and community-building exercises in a group care setting. Its team of engineers must understand closely with the staff of the nursing home, where you work additional features could be added to the robot to the safety of the patient pressure. In July 2019, well before the first news of the outbreak of the crown in Wuhan, China, the team began studying whether Stevie might be able to fight infections. The team has a long standing partnership in Knollwood Military Retirement Community in Washington, D. C. A director had observed that there are no infections acquired one of the most serious threats to health in nursing homes. With that in mind, he approached McGinn Michael Beckett to discuss a research associate at Trinity microbiology department, if it were possible to equip the robot with a UV light function that would be strong harmful pathogens enough to kill but surely the residents use next and staff. UV light at wavelengths between 200 and 280 nanometers, also known as UV-C light known “causes DNA to one change shape or behaves as molecular scissors” Beckett says ,. “It will cut the genetic material and cause small nicks in it.” Repair complex organisms still minor cuts and even some bacteria. Viruses that are much simpler molecularly bacteria have no chance. UV-C light is a long tradition disinfectant in health care settings. In the last 10 years, hospitals around the world have adopted the machines that sterilize rooms and equipment with strong bursts of light. Since UV-C can also lead sunburn and cell mutations that lead to skin cancer, most of the machines currently can only work safely and effectively use in human void areas so that little practical for use in high traffic areas such as waiting rooms and other public areas. The Stevie robot sensors already had the opportunity to independently navigate and stop when it detects the presence of a person. A directional light source that automatically shuts off when it detects motion in the vicinity can be a useful feature. Akara played with the idea of a disinfectant UV-C function Stevie putting, but eventually dropped it when they could be found to integrate into robot design a satisfactory way. Then, on February 29, Ireland Health Executive Service (HSE) has confirmed the first case of novel coronavirus in the country. Less than two weeks later, an elderly woman in a hospital in Dublin was the first incident COVID-19 Ireland. The team had Akara data on how the UV-C light was effective as a disinfectant, and he knew how to make a relatively lightweight, agile robots that could effectively move people in a busy health facilities. If there was ever a time value, the idea of a UV-C-equipped autonomous robot, McGinn has made re-visit was, it was. The team has started making plans for a new robot that would combine the navigation functions that were designed to Stevie with a UV-C light. The robot would be no anthropomorphic features, but designed to work alongside humans. They would call this a Violet. Robot A time to say in the area of common robotics that robots are better suited for jobs too dirty, dull or dangerous for humans. The outbreak of the crown is a good example of the last one. Violet is used by many robots or immediately be used on the face of the global outbreak, navigation hospitals and assist with a very low risk of health professionals and patients to spread the infection. In China in November it came out COVID-19 in a hurry to robotic technologies to the front from. opened in March, a hospital in the epicenter of the pandemic, Wuhan, a new wing for the crown patients occupied by robots, monitor and clean and the food for the patient and vital signs. “Escalate epidemics, the possible role of robotics are becoming clearer,” a group of 13 researchers wrote in an editorial last month in the journal Science Robotics. The most important areas where robots could make a significant difference: among these, the UV disinfection. wrote “to clean Instead of a disinfection, staff lead convenient, fast and effective disinfection ,, autonomous or remote-controlled robot disinfection workforce mobilization and increases the risk of exposure requires” the researchers said. “The new generations of robots, from macro to micro scale could navigate high-risk areas developed and continuously sterilize all high-touch surfaces”. Akara is not the only company working on robotic cleaners. A Danish company called UVD robot has sold hundreds of disinfection robot in China and other parts of the world, started by the outbreak. Another company of robotics in China and the United States to support the redesign of existing technologies with the current outbreak. “We are trying to do something [help], like everyone here in China” based Shenzhen Keyman Guan YouiBot told the BBC. The company that produces robots usually for storage depot and other logistical aspects, now also produces a disinfectant robot. rooms, waiting areas, small lanes and public transport: Endgame has Akara to make Violet portable enough and compact to be able to work concentrated in narrow rooms, which are otherwise difficult to clean crowded. It also has a protective shield around the rear part of the light sensors and motion detection so that people do not leave the area while it is at work. With the support of Ireland HSE Purple team recently tested the robot in Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore, about 60 miles west of Dublin. They conducted tests in a room with a CT scanner, one that COVID-19 patients in whom breast scans would be reserved if and when the hospital sees an influx of patients. It usually takes a radiology 15 minutes the room with disinfectant wipes to clean and then another 30 to 60 minutes for dry chemicals and dispersion all bacteria present in the air, which means that the room is only on one patient may develop a ‘Now. In tests, a Violet robot was able to do in 15 minutes, a quadrupling of the work term. Akara is trying to raise money now to build an advanced prototype that can be tested in different contexts. Under normal circumstances, the process of designing, testing and approval may take such a robot for use in the hospital months if not years. This situation is not so long. There are no cutting corners when it comes to tools that could affect people’s health, but it does mean the urgency of the crown crisis, it is better to move quickly, than ever. “All those involved in emergency response know this, if you have to be right before you move, you will never win. Perfection is the enemy of the good when it comes to emergency management. Triumphs Speed perfection” epidemiologist Michael Ryan, CEO of the emergency program for the World health Organization’s health, said in March, manage its previous experience outbreaks of Ebola. “Each is the result of anxiety errors. But the biggest mistake is not to move. The biggest mistake is paralyzed by fear of failure.” It will-hopefully-be many lessons learned from the crisis crown. And ‘the need for innovation in peacetime, so that the right technology is ready to go when the crisis strikes. If there is something that the science of course, is that in an increasingly interconnected world, a global pandemic will strike again. Weeks was reported after the first Ebola US case in 2014, the National Science Foundation and the White House must help Office of Science and Technology Policy, a series of workshops the robot potential with tasks such as waste disposal, decontamination and humans to explore in the grave situations that human workers could get sick. However, funding and initiative to pursue these ideas slowed by Ebola containment, at least in the US According Trump opening, the main role in the Office of Science and Technology Policy sat vacant until 2019 August confirms meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier. The White House recently announced a partnership between the big tech companies for supercomputing resources to combat the spread of the virus, but I was recruiting robots with no public debate at the federal level. “Without the support of robot research efforts will also not be ready for the next event again,” the researchers wrote editorials in Robotics Sciences. “The fusion of technology and infectious disease professionals with the promotion of dedicated funding we can be ready when (not if) comes the next pandemic.”
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