BANGKOK, Thailand, 09 April 2020
Yannix’s Executive Director, Thavida Maneewarn, Ph.D., and her team of Yannix employees along with current and former students of the Institute of Field Robotics have developed a robot to aid in the effort to fight COVID-19 in Thailand.
Dr. Thavida is leveraging over 20 years of previous work in the field of robotics. Last week, she and her team began testing a remote controlled robot in a hospital setting for the purpose of delivering items such as food and medical supplies to quarantined COVID-19 patients without exposing hospital personnel to unnecessary risk. The robot drives a standard hospital push cart and is controlled by medical staff via remote control. This particular robot design is focused on ease of control as well as easy maintenance and lowered production cost.
This project began in response to a call from the Maker Thailand Club for specialists around Thailand to assist in deploying robots in hospitals to help minimize the spread of the virus.
On April 7, the initial robot prototype was delivered to Bhumibol Adulyadej Hospital in Bangkok for additional field testing by the medical staff.
Yannix is currently sourcing parts for five additional robots. Once the testing is complete and the initial robot’s performance has been approved, Yannix will expand its efforts to assist in the fight against COVID-19.