Humanitarian Technology (HuT) Lab, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri campus, headed by Dr. Rajesh Kannan Megalingam (Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication, School of Engineering, Amritapuri) has developed remote-controlled robots ANNAPOORNA, PRABHA and MARUTI for COVID-19 scenarios.

ANNAPOORNA: Food, Water & Medicine Delivery Tele-Operated Robot with Tele-Medicine Facility can serve food, water and medicine to patients in isolated wards. It also has integrated telemedicine features and enables patients in isolated wards to interact with doctors/nurses remotely.

PRABHA: Ultraviolet Room Disinfection Tele-Operated Robot has been fitted with a siren for safety when operated, the mobile robot uses Bluetooth for remote control. The UV lamps can be switched on/off remotely.

MARUTI: Tele-Operated Patient Transportation Robot allows the operator/caretaker using a Bluetooth application, which can be installed in any smartphone or using a wireless joystick controller, to operate the wheelchair at a safe distance of 1m up to 4m. Patients in isolation wards can be transported without the need for the operator to touch the wheelchair or the patients.

The robots were developed re-using existing and available resources of Amrita during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.