SLIIT Undergraduate together with friends design Robot to Assist Karapitiya Teaching Hospital Medical Staff Battle Covid-19
Understanding the importance of protecting health workers in their fight against coronavirus, especially while attending to patients, SLIIT student, fourth-year Harsha de Silva together with friends from the Wayamba and Rajarata Universities developed a novel remotely operated robot recently.
The innovation was designed with the aim of helping medical staff minimize any risk of catching the highly infectious Covid-19 virus. The robot has been developed to transport up to 20kg of items necessary for patients and also communicate with patients via a remote control.
The robot can safely transport food items to patients and helps reduce any close interaction between the patients and health workers thereby also reducing the risk of the virus spreading.
Commenting on the novel innovation, Dr. Shelton Perera, Director, Teaching Hospital, Karapitiya Galle said, “Along with the hospital staff, I would like to thank you for your donation of very useful equipment to Teaching Hospital, Karapitiya. The developed robot machine, remote, computer tab and camera is greatly appreciated.”
The students were inspired by innovations created by individuals in foreign counties to help frontline workers in combatting the virus and were spurred on by applying theoretical knowledge gained at SLIIT. To complete this innovation, the students were able to make different items related to the robot in their homes and when it was safe to meet they assembled the robot.
Having studied computer networks, engineering courses and digital electronics during previous semesters, Harsha was interested in doing fire programmes and Arduino projects. The team gathered knowledge from a wide array of internal and external sources and realized they could confidently assembly their own invention.
Dr. Pradeep Abeygunawardhana, Head - Department of Computer Systems Engineering - Faculty of Computing, SLIIT said, “We are extremely proud that our student, Harsha together with his friends from other Universities have been successful in creating this novel device to help protect healthcare personnel.
At SLIIT, students are always encouraged to think out of the box and find solutions to pressing problems prevalent in their communities. Especially during these unprecedented times, the creation of this robot is timely.”