Autonomous robots provided by XENEX, Savioke and Aethon are helping hospitals fight COVID-19.
At Medstar Hospital Washington Centre in Washington D.C. and St. Elizabeth’s Healthcare, Aethon’s TUG robots assist with delivering linens, meals and medications, armed with the ability to automatically open their compartments for ease of access.
Savioke Relay and Lightstrike Robots
Savioke specializes in service robotics systems for hotels, high-rise complexes, logistics, manufacturing and hospital applications. Bill Booth, head of sales and marketing, noted that Savioke saw demand for robots double since the coronavirus epidemic began. The company's relay robots are reduce the workload of hospital staff in the US and abroad.
“The robots help the hospital staff offload some of the work, while also helping to reduce the spread of the virus,” Booth offered, adding that “they also help reduce the need for protective gear since the robots don’t need any."
LightStrike robots from XENEX are also working to combat COVID-19, making use of UV rays to provide no-touch disinfection. Once a patient's room or other area has been sanitized, the bots generate a report that is sent to XENEX's cloud based portal.
The intensity of these UV rays is more effective than UV-C mercury and is able to disinfect patient rooms in 20 minutes. Once an area has been thoroughly sanitized the LightStrike bots are able to generate a report confirming this which is sent to XENEX’s secure, cloud-based portal via wifi or cellular data.
During these difficult times, robots normally utilized in a manufacturing setting are invaluable to slow the spread of coronavirus and aid healthcare workers in addressing the epidemic.