swab — chenwanzhong

Interactive Oropharyngeal-Swab Robot System:
Designed for COVID-19 Pandemic

Context.

Why necessary? Nucleic acid testing is used to detect the presence of foreign viral nucleic acid in the respiratory specimens, blood, or feces of individuals. A positive result indicates the presence of the virus in the individual's body, which may be contagious.

Sampling Methods and Procedures

Existing Problems

Applications of Medical Service Robots in Nucleic Acid Testing Medical service robots for nucleic acid testing have been developed to offer several advantages in the healthcare industry. Some key applications include:

Sample Collection: Robots can autonomously collect samples from patients, eliminating the need for direct human contact and reducing the risk of contamination.
Laboratory Automation: Robots can automate laboratory processes, such as sample preparation, nucleic acid extraction, and PCR amplification, ensuring standardized and error-free procedures.
Data Analysis: Robots equipped with AI algorithms can analyze and interpret nucleic acid test results, providing accurate and reliable diagnoses.
Telemedicine Support: Medical service robots can be integrated with telemedicine platforms, allowing healthcare professionals to remotely monitor and control the testing process.

ConclusionThe ultimate goal is to design a precise automated system for conducting nucleic acid testing on throat swabs. This system should allow participants to be involved in the sampling process and ensure efficient data management.

.Technical Route

Information Architecture

Iteration.

Specifically, I am responsible for the design of the gesture interaction module, which this section revolves around.

1st iteration
Initially, our plan was to utilize a wireless bionic robotic hand that could be controlled using a motion-sensing glove for throat swab sampling. Following instructional demonstrations, we instructed the participants to wear the glove and use it to control the robotic arm for throat swab sampling. We have successfully implemented this technology and achieved the desired functionality.

MPU 6050

The MPU 6050 gyroscope can measure three angles, which are pitch angle, roll angle, and yaw angle. It is used to measure the posture of the hand. Several key positions are recorded where the hand and the robotic arm have similar postures. At this time, the data of the gyroscope (yaw, roll, pitch) on the hand and the servo position of the robotic arm are recorded. The cftool toolbox in Matlab is used to select suitable functions (polynomial) for the collected data of x and y (gyroscope angles and servo positions) and perform function fitting. After this step, the robotic arm can move along with the hand.

Originally, I wanted to use a flex sensor that can measure the degree of finger flexion, and map it to the position of the gripper, so that the gripping force of the gripper can be well controlled. However, the cost of a flex sensor is too high, basically five times that of an infrared sensor. So we switched to using an infrared sensor, which is bound to the little finger. When the hand is open or clenched, the infrared sensor will return high or low levels, respectively, corresponding to the opening and closing of the robotic arm's gripper. Now, our hand can control the robotic arm's gripper to grasp objects.

However, this method requires the user to wear gloves, which contradicts our original intention of achieving zero contact and reducing the risk of virus transmission. Moreover, it places too high demands on the user, so it was ultimately rejected.

Demonstration video of Prototype 1.0

2nd iteration
Afterwards, we switched to using gesture recognition for interaction. During the sampling process, users are able to adjust the sampling actions through different gestures without having to learn the complete set of standard sampling actions. This not only reduces physical contact but also lowers the risk of virus transmission.

Code Sample

Demonstration video of Prototype 2.0

.Demonstration

Medical supplies for sampling including test tubes, swabs, test tube racks; fixed bracket; Raspberry Pi Controller

Robotic arm complete sampling

Volunteer pharyngeal swab sampling experiment