Chinese professor designs robot for use on coronavirus wards

at one of China's top universities, a team of researchers has designed a robot. they say a robot could save lives during the coronavirus outbreak. The robot, which more closely resembles a robotic arm on wheels, is designed to perform ultrasounds, mouth swabs and auscultation on coronavirus patients.

Such tasks are normally carried out in person by doctors, but when using the robot, doctors don’t even need to be in the same room as patients. They could even be a different city to the robot, the robot's chief designer, Tsinghua University Professor Zheng said on Wednesday.

The idea of designing such a robot came to Zheng when he wanted to do something to contribute to the coronavirus relief effort and his friend, executive president of Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, said the biggest problem was doctors becoming infected. Zheng says he would like to build more such robots but the funding from the university has run out. He does not plan on commercializing his robot design but hopes a suitable company comes along one day to do that.