Tripura scientist's 'Warbot' helps in Covid care

Agartala, July 20 The first of its kind in northeast India, a robot developed by a scientist from Tripura University has been deployed in a government Covid care centre to deal with the patients.

Scientist Harjeet Nath has made the robot from locally available material, including scrap. He has named it as 'WARBOT' to fight the war against the COVID-19 pandemic. Nath's aim was to assist the frontline health workers, including doctors, in taking care of the coronavirus patients from a distant place. Nath donated the robot to the Tripura Medical College and Dr. B. R.Ambedkar Memorial Teaching Hospital, a semi-government medical college.

The medical college has been using the robot for the past four days at the 250-bed Covid care centre in Hapania, on the outskirts of the capital city Agartala. Tripura Medical College Professor and in-charge of the Hapania Covid care centre Shib Sekhar Datta said the robot was useful to some extent.

While talking to , other doctors and nurses of the Covid care centre said that so far the robot has been very useful in dealing with the patients. "Such a robot will reduce the exposure of the virus to the frontline health workers and facilitate the COVID-19 fight with lesser risk," they said.

The remote-controlled robot can carry 10-15 kg of material, has an operational range of 15-20 metres, and can deliver food, medicines and other essential items to the COVID-19 patients.

Nath said that he spent Rs 25,000 and took a week's time to make the robot.

"Due to the ongoing COVID-19 induced situation, I could not collect the latest and modern devices and tools from outside Tripura, hence I had to depend upon the local and scrap materials. I used the vital receiver of the robot from an old toy of a son of my relative," he told .

Nath, who received the young scientist award in 2018, said that the robot can be of enormous help to the doctors, nurses and other health workers to deal with the patients of the highly contagious nCoV.

An assistant professor of the Chemical and Polymer Engineering Department of Tripura University, the 32-year-old scientist said that the robot, regulated by a transmitter and a receiver, can work for around 90 minutes after the lead acid rechargeable battery

( With inputs from IANS )