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UST engineer creates robot to assist COVID-19 medical frontliners

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Josiah Antonio, ABS-CBN News

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JQMr3sfryiM?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>MANILA -- To reduce the risk of contacting the novel coronavirus, a Filipino engineer has created a service assistant robot to help medical frontliners attend to their patients during the pandemic.</p><p>University of Santo Tomas (UST) assistant professor and engineer Anthony James Bautista invented the robot which is now operating at the university&#x27;s hospital.</p><p>The robot is a telepresence robot that delivers medicine and allows health workers to communicate with patients remotely. It can easily be reproduced for other hospitals to use, Bautista said in a Facebook post.</p><script src="https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v2.5" async="" type="text/javascript"></script><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/anthony.j.bautista.5/posts/10219423538452236" data-width="auto"> </div><p>&quot;[The hospital is] going to use the robots to communicate with the patients remotely,&quot; he told ANC.</p><div><strong>Starting point</strong></div><p>Bautista said he drew inspiration to build this robot after his conversation with a doctor.</p><p>Dr. Rodrigo Calalang Santos of Pasig Doctors Medical Center talked with the engineer and said that there is a need for doctors to communicate and deliver medicine to the patients remotely in order to reduce contact with them. </p><p>Having a background in robotics, Santos asked Bautista to develop a robot which can help the medical frontliners. </p><p>The challenge was there were no components available due to the enhanced community quarantine.<br/> <br/>But with readily available tools in his laboratory, Bautista worked hard for five days and invented the machine.</p><div><strong>Meet The LISA Robot</strong></div><p>Named the LISA Robot for Logistic Indoor Service Assistant Robot, the device works on a first level automation, or a remote control used by the medical frontliners.</p><p>The telepresence robot has a tablet with applications that can be used for communication and a box that holds the medicine needed by the patient.</p><p>The tablet is directly used by patients so they covered it with plastic and is disinfect afterwards.</p><p>With the robot, doctors no longer have to directly contact patients for more than 5 meters and could reduce use of personal protective equipment, Bautista noted.</p><p>The Department of Science and Technology supported the project and has requested for 4 units for that will be used by four hospitals in the future.</p><div><strong>Further modifications for future use</strong></div><p>Bautista said further modifications can improve the robot&#x27;s performance and he has talked to suppliers to provide all the components he needed.</p><p>For instance, at the base should be a four-wheeled drive so that the robot can navigate continuously even with slippery and uneven floors. </p><p>Two levels of advanced automation will also be installed once everything is stabilized in the future, according to the engineer.</p><p>&quot;Like for example &#x27;yong WiFi, kaya nang i-operate ng doctor kahit nasa bahay siya,&quot; Bautista said.</p><p>&quot;And &#x27;yong third level ng automation na gagawin namin is fully autonomous, wherein &#x27;yong robot na mismo &#x27;yong mag-iidentify kung saan siya pupunta as commanded by the doctors,&quot; he added.</p><p>Bautista is looking forward to start working on the next 4 robots on April 20. He hopes to finish it before May.</p><p>&quot;We are thinking of this to be a long-term project not only in this situation but also in the future. Magagamit talaga ng mga hospitals,&quot; he said.</p>

<p>With the risk of contacting the novel coronavirus, a Filipino engineer created a service assistant robot to help medical frontliners attend to their patients during the pandemic.</p>

With the risk of contacting the novel coronavirus, a Filipino engineer created a service assistant robot to help medical frontliners attend to their patients during the pandemic.

UST engineer creates robot to assist COVID-19 medical frontliners

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UST engineer creates robot to assist COVID-19 medical frontliners

Josiah Antonio,

ABS-CBN News

Published April 14, 2020 12:23 PM PHT

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Updated April 14, 2020 12:48 PM PHT

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University of Santo Tomas

UST

LISA Robot

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coronavirus

COVID-19

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