Robot Helps Ease Staff Burdens at Quarantine Centers

Robot Vibot delivers meals to every Covid patient’s room, reducing workload and exposure risk among medical staff and patients

Jasmine Le

lehang1997hanu@gmail.com August 26, 2021 | 17:26

	Organizations, Individuals Support Hanoi in Covid-19 Fight
	Vietnam Seeks COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Support from Belgium
	Raise Funds for Free Heart Surgeries Give Children New Lease of Life

Robot Helps Ease Staff Burdens at Quarantine Centers

Robot Vibot stops at one patient's room to deliver food. Photo courtesy of Military Technical Academy/ via VNE

Vibot, invented by officials and researchers from the Military Technical Academy, has been used for food delivery in Field Hospital No.7. The medical facility has 16 floors, housing some 1,200 coronavirus patients.

Vibot reportedly can carry 60kg of items, equivalent to 60 meal portions. It can work non-stop for 12 hours and monitor its own level of energy to find charging stations when necessary, according to Tran Minh Vy, representative of the academy in southern region.

The robot will say “Patient in room No. 2 please come out for the food” as it arrives at one room. Once the food is taken out and patients wave at its screen, Vibot will say “Thank you, goodbye” before leaving to the next room. It plays music while moving, Vy said.

Photo courtesy of Military Technical Academy/ via VNE

On August 24, Vibot has delivered around 450 meal sets for Covid patients treating at floor from 5 to 15 of Field Hospital No.7, HCMC. Besides carrying food, medicine, or waste, Robot Vibot also helps patients get virtual consultation with the medical personnel.

“This greatly reduces the workload for the healthcare workers. More importantly, it mitigates staff’s exposure risk to the coronavirus,” Vy told VNE.

Previously, Robot Vibot has been used to assist frontline workers in Bac Giang.

The project “Research and design medical transportation robots for use in highly contagious quarantine zones - Vibot” was commissioned by the Ministry of Science and Technology and developed by the Ministry of Defense’s Military Technical Academy when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in April 2020.

The second generation of Vibot, Vibot-2, the second generation of medical transportation robots developed by the Military Technical Academy, was completed and tested at the 108 Military Central Hospital in Hanoi in late April. By mid-May, another series of Vibot-2 systems, including a control center and five robots, were assembled for use at Bach Mai Hospital in Ha Nam province to replace medical workers serving COVID patients in the hospital’s quarantine zone.

"After Vibot-1 was tested at Bac Thang Long Hospital in Hanoi in April 2020, we upgraded the robots. Vibot-2 can work in different environments, not only hospitals but also factories, workshops, airports and exhibition centers,” said Major General Nguyen Lac Hong, Deputy Director of the Military Technical Academy. The research team plans to adjust Vibot-2 into military robots to serve military and defense purposes.

Vietnam to Receive More Covid Vaccine Support than Expected

The country will get more coronavirus vaccine allocation from different sources in the next two months

Airlines Vow To Assist COVID-19 Fight In The South

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has devised plans aimed at transporting personnel and medical equipment to coronavirus hotspots of Ho Chi Minh City, ...