Recently, two types of robots developed by Joint SDU-NTU Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research (C-FAIR) were sent to Xishui People's Hospital in Huanggang, Hubei province and Union Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology to support the front-line COVID-19 fight.

The two types of robots are smart medical consultation and delivery robots and epidemic prevention patrol robots. The smart medical consultation and delivery robots can inquire patients, make ward rounds and deliver materials instead of medical staff in contaminated zones, thereby reducing the risk of cross-infection and relieving the stress of medical staff. The epidemic prevention patrol robots have multiple functions, including automatic temperature measurement, disinfectant spraying on specific routes, facial recognition, voice prompts for mask wearing, autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance, as well as epidemic prevention publicity. The first patch of robots have arrived at Wuhan on March 6.

During the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, C-FAIR discussed with experts from Shandong Cancer Hospital on feasible plans and operation methods of using AI in epidemic prevention, and cooperated with Shandong First Medical University, Jinan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and other institutes to conduct technical research. Thanks to the joint efforts of more than 10 technicians, the prototype development was completed within one month.

The C-FAIR team with both medical experts and engineers will follow closely the needs of epidemic prevention front line and optimize the system of epidemic prevention robots with high-tech measures. The team is researching and developing robots with force feedback flexible manipulators, which can be used to help medical staff to do clinical virus sampling and auxiliary examination.

Jointly sponsored by Shandong University and Nanyang Technological University in 2019, C-FAIR has planned key research directions such asAI basic theory, AI health and old-age care, smart government administration, block chain intelligence, cross media intelligence, as well as real-life AI solutions. On the 2020 AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Dareway Software Co affiliated with Shandong Universityand C-FAIR won the Innovative Application of Artificial Intelligence by their co-developed AI application entitled: "PIDS: An Intelligent Electric Power Management Platform".

Translated by: Chen Yaxian

Edited by: Xie Tingting