Inside China’s Wuhan hospital where coronavirus patients were treated by robots

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The total number of coronavirus cases has now been more than 596,731 and the virus has caused more than 27,352 death across the globe. The USA is leading the list in terms of most coronavirus cases and China has claimed that they have contained this disease and soon they will slow down the number of new cases.

The coronavirus was first originated in China’s Wuhan and it is also the city where most numbers of cases have been found and most numbers of people have been killed. Coronavirus easily gets spread by human interaction and there is a very high chance that this virus may infect the doctors and nurses also.

In order to prevent this from happening, the robots completely took over a smart field in Wuhan hospital built for coronavirus. This will give human health care workers relief as they care for coronavirus patients nonstop and can free up human hospital medical staff and limit the possibility of virus spread.

These robots were offers by the robotics company CloudMinds. The company sent 14 robots to Wuhan province, China to help with patient care amid the coronavirus pandemic.

CloudMinds Technology is a Beijing bases startup founded in early 2015, it is backed by SoftBank. It provides cloud-based systems for robots and it donated the bots to the hospital, a trial effort set up in a converted sports center in partnership with China Mobile and Wuhan Wuchang Hospital.

The 5G-powered temperature measurement devices flagged patients displaying fever symptoms. The robots worked 24/7 measuring heart rates and blood oxygen levels via smart bracelets and rings worn by patients. They can clean and disinfect, deliver medicine to patients and measure patients’ temperature.

The bots delivered medication, patrolled and cleaned infected areas, led patients in exercises and even performed Robo-dances to entertain bored quarantined patients.

The flesh and blood kind, directed and controlled the robots remotely via an information management platform that includes a gamified control platform featuring digital twins for each individual robot.

CloudMinds’ humanoid service robot, Ginger, helped with hospital admissions, education services and, as can be seen in the picture below, in providing a bit of levity. In addition to its administrative responsibilities, Ginger, “helped lift the spirits of bored quarantine patients by entertaining them with dancing,” Bill said.

The delivery robot below has autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance system. It can be used to deliver food, drinks, and medicine to patients without direct person-to-person contact.

The robots worked with an artificial intelligence information management platform.

Called HARIX which stands for Human Augmented Robot Intelligence with eXtreme Reality, “this AI platform, synced with smart bracelets and rings worn by patients, was able to monitor patient vital signs including temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, allowing doctors and nurses outside the facility to monitor all patient vital information remotely on one interface,” Bill Huang.

“Doctors and nurses were also equipped with these smart devices to monitor their own vitals to catch any potential early symptoms of infection,” he says.

Operations in field hospitals like Wuhan Wuchang Smart Field Hospital have now been put on hold with the rest of Wuhan’s temporary hospitals, as the coronavirus risk across the greater Wuhan area appeared to dissipate and regular hospitals were able to accommodate new cases.

“These temporary field hospitals were used primarily to treat new incoming cases with light symptoms, with severe cases being transferred to hospitals,” a CloudMinds said. “As the containment efforts have improved, and the number of new cases has decreased, hospitals are now able to accommodate all new incoming cases.”

The Cloud Mind robots remain operational inside the smart field hospital in case it’s needed again.

“We were told that all medical staff for the field hospitals remain in the city resting and on standby ready to reopen should the need arise,” a Cloud Minds spokesperson told.

Along with the Wuhan hospital, the robots are found active in other areas of China also. They’ve checked visitors’ identities at a Shenyang hospital in northeast China and sprayed disinfectant in residential areas in Wuhan, the central Chinese city about 650 miles south of Beijing where the virus is believed to have originated.