A robot dog is being trialled as a way of taking patients’ vital signs to minimise the risks posed to health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital are investigating the use of robots and have been using Spot – the good boy produced by Boston Dynamics.
Their work has been submitted to a journal, but has not been peer-reviewed by experts yet.
The research allows healthcare staff to see patients remotely
Spot, which walks on four legs, can be manoeuvred by doctors using a handheld device.
The robot is mounted with a tablet and four cameras, which help patients and doctors discuss symptoms and take measurements without having to make contact.
There is one infrared camera and three monochrome ones which filter through different wavelengths of light – these are used to measure temperature, rate of breathing, pulse and blood oxygen saturation.
The infrared camera can measure temperature and rate of breathing. It measures skin temperature on the face and an algorithm correlates this with core body temperature.
As the patient breathes in and out while wearing a face mask, their breath naturally alters the mask’s temperature – this change allows researchers to work out how rapidly they are breathing.
The algorithm accounts for ambient temperature, as well as the distance between the camera and patient, meaning measurements can be taken from different distances and in various conditions while maintaining accuracy.
Pulse and blood oxygen saturation are recorded through the three monochrome cameras, which record colour changes that arise when haemoglobin in blood cells binds to oxygen and flows through blood vessels. Another algorithm is applied to these to obtain the final reading.
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Hunwei Huang, a postdoctoral associate at MIT, said: “In robotics, one of our goals is to use automation and robotic technology to remove people from dangerous jobs.
“We thought it should be possible for us to use a robot to remove the health care worker from the risk of directly exposing themselves to the patient.”
Researchers have said no new technology was created, as they took what already exists and integrated it in a way specific for COVID-19.
The research involved taking measurements of healthy volunteers, and there are now plans to test the robots on those showing coronavirus symptoms.
It is hoped that these robots could be used in future to continuously monitor patients and to allow doctors to check on them remotely. Both would require approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.
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