‘Sona’ takes care of corona patients at SMS isolation ward
JAIPUR: These days patients admitted in the isolation ward of SMS Hospital in Jaipur with Sars-cov-2 infection are being looked after by Sona. From giving them medicines, to bringing them food, water and snacks, Sona is doing it all and also bringing some cheer to the stressed out patients.
Sona 2.5 is a robot that is being used by the hospital on a trial basis to cater to the coronavirus patients.
Dr Sudhir Bhandari, principal of SMS Medical College, says, “The main thing to prevent spread of this virus is to stop human contact. Through this robot, that is what we are trying to achieve.” He says during the day, 10 or more human visits might be necessitated by nursing staff to look after demands of patients. But now the 5 feet high Sona is taking care of all that.
There are now nine coronavirus positive patients admitted in the isolation ward at the hospital. “If any patient needs food or water, or it is time for their medicine, or they want a snack, they call the nurse station and we send Sona with their desired item,” he said.
Dr Bhandari said the robot was developed by a private company. “It was part of their CSR activity. They developed the robot and gave it to us to try it out. We have found it useful.”
Dr Anil Dubey, deputy superintendent, SMS Hospital, said the robot is being used on a trial basis for a week and the hospital is satisfied with its performance. “The first time I took Sona to the isolation ward, the patients were excited and thrilled to see it,” he recalls.
“The robot is controlled through a mobile app. It recognises areas where it has to go by creating a map. That map can be downloaded on phone and the robot can be sent to a particular place by clicking on the map,” he said.
Sona has pre-recorded messages in English, which Dr Dubey says, they got translated into Hindi. She says small messages such as “I am glad I got an opportunity to serve you”, “Here is your water”, “Please wash your hands” etc.
Sona is also sanitised with one percent hypochloride solution by the staff at the hospital and has become quite popular with the staff and the patients.
Bhuvnesh Mishra, director of Club First Technologies, which has developed Sona, said, “The robot maps any environment like a human and can navigate through memory avoiding any obstacles, or items or persons in between,” Mishra said.
He said the robot is the world’s first with spine based balancing technology, which helps it balance. “We have patented this technology, which helps it balance even with multiple speed variations,” he adds.